Sidelined
by Andrea O'Down
Summary: After getting badly hurt in a fight, Raph has to face some weeks of being put out of action. Not being able to stand by his brothers during fights, he starts questioning his role as protector of the family. And what the heck should he do with all this free time at his hands?
1. Misfortune

**Chapter 01: Misfortune**

Raphael knew a few things about fights. They were all different, each and every one of them, but roughly, they could be separated into three groups. There were the ones where everything went according to plan, the smooth ones. Then there were the ones that made them struggle a bit because something unexpected popped up, the struggling ones. And then there were the ones where absolutely anything went totally, one-hundred-fifty percent wrong, where they were lucky to get out of there alive and – mostly – in one piece. He called these the catastrophic ones.

And today's fight was one of those.

"Casey, look out!" Raph cried out as he rushed over to his friend when parts of the warehouse-ceiling came crumbling down, some rocks large enough to flatten them, after the Kraang had hit the ceiling with their new plasma-canon.

"Wh…," was all Casey managed to say before Raph tackled him out of the danger zone as far as possible, dragging him to the ground. The next second Raph was over him, shielding him with his body.

Raph felt small pieces of debris hitting his shell, the thudding noise they made ringing in his ears.

But then there was this sudden pang in his left leg, so strong and unexpected, it cut off his breath, turning his vision red with pain. He would have cried out if he had left any air left in his lungs.

But then there was only silence – and darkness.

* * *

><p>"Owwwww," Raph moaned as he finally gained consciousness again.<p>

His eyelids felt like they weighed tons, but he tried to crack his eyes open with all his strength as he moved one hand to his aching temples. "What hit me?"

And then he felt it, the dull, pulsating pain in his left foot. Heck, it felt like there was a second heart pounding down there, except every beat hurt more and more.

"A warehouse-ceiling," came the reply from Donnie. "Well, a part of it. And it didn't hit all of you, just your left foot."

Raph finally managed to open his eyes and looked around. He was in Donnie's lab, lying on the cot. He tried to move, but hissed as this made a rush of pain shooting through his left foot.

"Don't move!" Donnie protested.

"A little late for that!" Raph replied, but obeyed and kept still.

Donnie looked at him sympathetically. "You need any more painkillers?"

"Heck, yes!"

Donnie walked away for a moment to fill a syringe. When he gave him the shot, Raph didn't even flinch, a sign how bad he must be feeling. He usually protested, going on about how much he hated needles for hours after he got a shot, but this time, the little pain the needle made as it pierced his upper arm felt rather welcome compared to the pain in his foot.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"You're welcome."

Raph just lay there for a few moments, feeling how the pain in his left foot ceased a bit, before some flashbacks of this night's events came back to him.

"Casey!" he burst out as his eyes shot wide open and he tried to get up again.

"Easy there, Raph!" Donnie said, placing his hands on Raph's shoulders and pushing him down again. "I said, no moving! Or the next shot you'll get will be some tranquilizer!"

"But…," Raph protested, but gave up on struggling rather quickly because it made the pain that had just reached a bearable level flare up again.

"Casey is fine!" Donnie assured him. "He's in the living room. I had to kick him out of here because he kept getting in my way when I tried to look at you."

Raph sighed. "What exactly happened?"

"You prevented Casey from getting flattened. Again. But you were a little unlucky this time. One bigger piece of debris hit your left foot quite badly. It took Leo some time to get it off of you, and then we brought you back to the lair. Turned out your left ankle is broken, but it could be worse. Regarding to the size of that rock, it's a miracle that it just broke your ankle and didn't crush your foot completely. So you still were quite lucky under the circumstances."

Raph twisted his mouth. "I would leap for joy if it wasn't for my luckily broken ankle."

Donnie acted as if he hadn't heard, and another moment of silence passed.

"How long till I'm back on both my feet?" Raph asked.

"Depends on the healing process, but approximately six to eight weeks."

"WHAT!?"

But before Raph could say anymore, the door of the lab was cautiously opened.

"Sorry, Donnie, I know you said I should stay out of here, until you come to get me, but I think I heard Raph's voice."

Raph and Donnie looked over to the door where an anxious looking Casey had popped his head in.

Raph wondered what could have caused Casey to act this…un-Casey, but then he remembered that Donnie had mentioned that he had had to kick him out of the lab. And knowing Donnie and his short temper when it came to people keeping him from doing his work, he guessed that the kicking-out had been meant literally.

"Yes, Casey, Raph's awake," Donnie said. "You can come in now."

"O-okay," Casey said as he entered, but he kept eyeing Donnie suspiciously, and when Donnie went over to the door to leave Raph and Casey alone for a moment, Casey flinched a little when Donnie walked past him.

When he had left and Casey had safely reached the cot, Raph could hear his friend let out a little sigh of relief.

But then Casey looked down at him and his forehead wrinkled with concern.

"How ya doin', man?" he asked.

"Well, I was told that I was lucky to only break my ankle and not totally smash my foot," Raph replied, "but aside from that, not so good. I feel like I was hit by a bus, no, hit by the entire fleet of buses in New York."

Casey bit his bottom lip. "I'm sorry, man."

Raph blinked in confusion. "_You're_ sorry? What for? It wasn't your fault. It was the Kraang who made half the ceiling come down."

"But if I hadn't stood in the way, you'd be fine!"

"You weren't standing in the way, Casey, you were in the middle of a fight. Could have happened to any of us."

Casey lowered his eyes to the floor, pressing his lips into a thin line.

"Besides, I have rescued you from getting flattened before. Where comes all this guilt from all of a sudden?" Raph continued.

"Well, it's a total different thing if you rescue me without getting hurt or you nearly get killed."

"I'm fine, Casey," Raph said which made Casey look at him again with a raised brow. "Well, the greater part of me is. And the rest will be soon. So, everything's okay." He mustered Casey, looking for any bruises, but couldn't find any. "You okay?"

Casey nodded. "Thanks to you."

"Well, then I'd say we're good now, right?" He held up his hand for Casey, but his friend hesitated a little before he took it. And his handshake missed the usual force, like he was afraid to hurt Raph. This made Raph a little angry. He was injured, not suddenly turned into porcelain! So he squeezed Casey's hand rather firmly, making him flinch. Seeing how Casey bit down his tongue to not yelp in pain, reconciled Raph with the fact that his friend was treating him as if he wasn't the rough guy he used to know, but some wimpy little brat.

When Raph let go, Casey quickly pulled back his hand.

"Okay, man, I better let you rest now, before Doctor Tooth Gap gets angry again."

"See you, Casey!"

"Bye, Raph!"

When Casey was walking for the door, Raph saw how he shook his hand and moved his fingers to check if they were all still working properly.

This made Raph smirk.

_There you go!_, he thought. _I'm still Raph, the tough guy, no porcelain doll!_

But something in the way Casey had looked at him, rubbed him the wrong way. He closed his eyes.

_Six weeks…_

He sighed.

_This is going to be hard._


	2. No Crutches

**Chapter 02: No Crutches**

When Raph woke up, he rolled on his side. There was this dull pain in his left ankle, and he remembered immediately what had happened yesterday – Casey nearly getting flattened, him breaking his ankle by rescuing him, the pain, Donnie telling him that he couldn't train for at least six weeks, Donnie and Leo bringing him to his room.

He sighed. Six weeks!

He pushed away his blanket and looked down on his left ankle, which was now covered in a support splint, Donnie had made yesterday. He frowned at it, but then he looked to the side, and he set eyes on the crutches leaning on the wall next to his bed.

He pressed his mouth into a tense line, his frown getting deeper, and he glared at them.

He would so _not_ use them! Crutches were for the weak, for the old, and he was neither.

He pushed himself into a sitting position, hissing a little when he moved his left ankle. Maybe he should ask Donnie for some more painkillers.

He looked at the crutches again.

_No, just no!_

He got up, balancing on his right foot, and jumped over to the door. Once there, he allowed himself a moment to catch his breath again, leaning on the door frame for a second or so.

Then he took a deep breath and jumped down the aisle on one leg.

That was going pretty well, wasn't it? And it was a lot cooler than to walk on crutches. Crutches were just so…uncool.

He had reached the living room, slumping down on the couch. He lay back, letting his broken ankle rest on a cushion. He was breathing heavily by now. He had thought it would take him longer to lose his breath. He was a ninja, he was in great physical shape, why did jumping on one leg exhaust him that much? Was it the unusual way of motion? Or all the painkillers in his blood? Well, whatever it was, he hated it.

He closed his eyes for a moment, still breathing heavily.

"Hey, Raph, you okay?" he heard Mikey's voice and opened his eyes again to find his youngest brother look at him with concerned eyes.

"I'm fine, Mikey!" he replied, a little louder than had been necessary.

"Well, you don't look so fine," Mikey said, frowning a little. "Why are you breathing so heavily?"

"I said, I'm fine, Mikey!" Raph yelled back and sat up again. "I just need a few more painkillers."

"Should I get Donnie? He's in his lab anyway."

"No, I'm fine!"

And with that Raph started crossing the pit by jumping on his good leg again.

"What happened to your crutches?" Mikey asked.

Raph had just reached the end of the pit and was about to jump on the couch and then up to the stairs that led to Donnie's lab, but Mikey made him stop. He turned around, his eyes burning with anger.

"I DON'T NEED CRUTCHES! I'M DOING GREAT WITHOUT THEM!" he cried out before he turned back and did the jump on the couch. But he had underestimated that the couch was no floor, but soft, and he nearly toppled over.

"Raph!" Mikey cried out and ran over to him, but by the time he had reached him, Raph had gained his balance again.

"I said I'm fine!" Raph's voice was so angry that Mikey stopped mid-motion, his hands that he had held up to catch his falling brother, dropped to his sides.

"O-okay," he said, lowering his eyes under Raph's fierce glare.

For a moment, Raph felt sorry for being this angry at Mikey. It wasn't Mikey's fault that he was forced to jump on one leg; it was the Kraang's fault, and their fault alone. But he couldn't yell at them right now, and he needed to get the burning anger about his current condition out of his chest somehow. His look softened a bit, before he did the second jump and then jumped up the stairs.

* * *

><p>Donnie was sitting at his computer when he heard the door of his lab slide open. He raised his eyes and looked to the door, and frowned a little when he found Raph standing there on one leg, leaning on the door frame and breathing heavily.<p>

"H-hey, Donnie!" he panted. "You…got some more…painkillers for me?"

"S-sure," Donnie said.

"Good."

Donnie looked his brother over. "What happened to your crutch…?"

"I DON'T NEED CRUTCHES!"

Raph jumped over to his genius brother. Donnie quickly got up in an attempt to help Raph, but he shot him such an angry glance that Donnie rethought that. Instead, he walked behind his office chair, pointing at the now empty chair.

"W-why don't you have a seat?" he asked.

Raph just nodded, pleased with the fact that his brother's actions could be seen as just being polite instead of feeling pity for him, and he slumped down on the office chair.

"I'll now get you your painkillers," Donnie continued and went over to his medicine cabinet.

Raph watched him, leaning back a little, which made the office chair roll back on its wheels a little.

And this moment something in his brain clicked. He smirked and then rolled over to Donnie by pushing forward on his good leg.

* * *

><p>When April arrived at the lair later that day with two pizza boxes, she found the living room empty. She wasn't sure what to do first, if she should go to Raph and ask him how he was feeling. But then she remembered something Donnie had told her on the phone earlier: <em>Whenever Raph is sick or hurt, don't try to treat him differently than the others. He hates that. He thinks it's a sign of pity, so under no circumstances, do anything like that! He accepts special treatment only if it is absolutely necessary. <em>

And that made her decide against it. And she was kind of glad that Casey wouldn't join them for their movie night today because he had training. She had realized at school how worried Casey had been, glancing at his phone every two minutes. She didn't have a chance to tell him about the no special treatment-rule because she had talked to Donnie after school, but she would let Casey know as soon as possible.

So she just positioned herself in the pit and called out for the guys.

"Guys, pizza's here!"

And pretty soon she could hear approaching footsteps – and a noise she couldn't quite name. A scratching noise, maybe? And when she set eyes on the guys, she realized what it was. While Donnie and Leo had already descended the stairs from the corridor that led to their rooms, Mikey brought up the rear behind Raph – and Raph was sitting on an office chair and rolling to the stairs.

April blinked a few times. What was that about?

When he had reached the stairs, he got up, balancing on one foot, grabbed the office chair and jumped down the stairs. Then he sat down again and rolled over to the pit.

April's eyes widened. Why didn't anyone help him? That looked pretty dangerous!

But then she realized that although the three other turtles pretended to not watch Raph, they in reality watched his every move closely from the corner of their eyes, moving a little more slowly to stay close to him or just happened to check something on their gear when it looked like Raph could topple over.

Raph on the other hand acted as if he didn't notice.

He had now reached the pit and let himself slide down on the couch.

April knew for sure she shouldn't do that, but she simply had to ask him how he was doing. It felt just as wrong if she didn't.

"How are you doing, Raph?" she asked and put on a warm smile in an attempt to make clear that she wasn't pitying him, but instead just interested in his well-being.

Raph rolled his eyes and grunted in frustration.

"I'm doing fine!" he said, the anger in his voice clearly hearable, although not as much as when he talked to his brothers. "Seriously, April, it's just a broken ankle, not a broken neck!"

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," she said, still smiling. Now, that hadn't been as bad as she had thought. She handed Mikey who slumped down next to Raph one of the pizza boxes and sat down between Donnie and Leo, holding the other pizza box. She looked over to Raph, once more, and then set eyes on the office chair again. Okay, she needed to know.

She waited until Mikey had hit play and the movie had started before she leaned over to Leo's ear, her voice barely a whisper, without really moving her lips when she spoke.

"Why is Raph rolling around on an office chair?" she asked.

"Because he refuses to walk on crutches. Crutches are uncool," Leo explained. "We didn't have the heart – or the death wish – to tell him that the office chair is even worse."

April shot a glance at Raph once more. His forehead was wrinkled, and although he was munching on his pizza, it seemed to her as if he was pressing his mouth into a hard line. His eyes were glued on the TV, and his whole posture had this "Don't talk to me! Don't touch me!"-attitude.

"Okay," she whispered back to Leo. "I think I can relate to that."

She definitely needed to talk to Casey tomorrow, to prevent the worst.


	3. Roses and Chocolates

**Chapter 03: Roses and Chocolates**

The next morning, Raph stayed as long as he could in this pleasant state between sleep and waking where anything was possible – even that this accident had just been a bad dream and his ankle wasn't broken, and everything was just fine. That he could get up any moment now and train at the dojo, or give the Kraang some good beat-down tonight. He tried really hard to not wake up completely, to stay in this state just a little longer, but the harder he tried the more he woke up, until he finally gave up. There was no use in pretending that his ankle was good again and that the accident had never happened. He could feel the dullness in his left ankle too well now, anyway.

So he opened his eyes and sat up with a sigh. He reached for his T-phone. One look at the time, and his eyes widened in shock. Ten o'clock? How could it already be ten o'clock? He never slept that long!

He had just pushed away his blanket, when his door was silently opened and Mikey peeked inside. However, when he saw that his brother was awake, he opened the door completely with a big smile.

"Now, look who's up!" he said. "Good morning, Raph!" His voice was all cheerful and friendly.

Raph on the other hand was his grumpy self.

"It's ten, Mikey!" he said angrily. "How come no one woke me up?"

And with that he tried to get up.

"Sensei said we should let you sleep," Mikey announced, all the cheerfulness suddenly gone from his voice. "Because you can't train with us and need your rest."

The last sentence had barely been a whisper, but Raph had heard nonetheless and stopped in his attempts to get up. Instead he sat down on his bed again, his carapace resting against the headboard, and folded his arms over his plastron.

"Oh, okay," he said, pressing his mouth into a hard line as he lowered his eyes, glaring angrily at the mattress – or his left ankle in the support splint. Mikey wasn't sure about this.

He bit his lip, unsure what to do now. But then he forced himself to smile again.

"I'll make you breakfast, okay?" he suggested which made Raph lift his eyes again. "How about pancakes? You love pancakes, right? Stay here. Today, it's breakfast in bed for you. Now isn't that a wonderful, wonderful way to start the day? I'll be right back!"

And with that he simply flew out of Raph's room.

Raph watched this with a deep frown, then growled. He could think of at least ten more wonderful ways to start the day – starting with beating up Mikey.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his anger, at least a little bit. Oh, he would so love to hit something! But having to sit or stand on one leg sure limited his options. So he took another deep breath which helped a teeny-tiny bit.

And then he waited.

What else could he do, anyway?

* * *

><p>He finished his breakfast with a satisfied sigh and put the bedtable aside.<p>

_I have to give Mikey that_, he thought. _His pancakes are delicious. Well, as long as he doesn't try to make them even better by turning them into pizza pancakes or something, that is._

But today, it had only been normal, delicious pancakes. Raph smiled a little and leaned back.

Now, this day hadn't been as bad as he had feared. Yes, not being able to walk still sucked, but getting a delicious breakfast in bed wasn't so bad after all. He actually liked it more than he would admit – he had a reputation to keep.

But when he set eyes on his ankle in the support splint again, he twisted his mouth. But after a few moments of glaring at it, he took a deep breath. Anger wouldn't make his ankle heal any faster.

_Breathe in, breath out, river over stone…_

His mantra was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Yes?"

The door was opened cautiously and Casey popped his head in.

"Hey there, Raph," he said with an insecure laugh. "How ya doin'?"

"As good as I can," Raph replied with a shrug.

For a moment he wondered why Casey was here. It wasn't even midday. Wasn't he supposed to be in school or something? But then he remembered that it was Sunday – not that school would keep Casey away if he thought something more interesting or more important was going on. He only skipped school on rare occasions though, as did April when something like an alien invasion popped up, so Raph thought it was okay.

"You…uhm…got my texts that I couldn't make it to the movie night yesterday?" Casey asked insecurely. He still hadn't entered the room, just popped his head in.

"Well, I wasn't sure if I got it right after the first twenty 'Can't make it tonight, have training, sorry'-messages, but message number twenty-one with the exact same text sorta nailed it down for me," Raph replied with a smirk.

_See? That's not so bad. I still can joke around._

"Oh good!" There was a relieved ring to Casey's voice, and he finally opened the door and entered Raph's room.

And Raph's face – and his mood – literally fell when he saw what Casey was carrying. Was that a bouquet? And in his other hand, was he really holding a box of chocolates?

Raph felt how the anger that had just faded down, started burning in his stomach again.

What was he? Casey's date? Or had Donnie forgotten to mention that he was on his death-bed? And not even then Raph would have tolerated his best friend bringing him flowers and chocolates!

"That's for you," Casey explained and dropped the bouquet on the bed next to Raph and placed the box of chocolates on the bedside table.

Raph shifted away from the bouquet a little as if it could attack him any minute, and then just looked from the bouquet to the box of chocolates to Casey, then to the bouquet again and he realized with horror that it was red roses. When he looked up to Casey, his features had all switched into his trademark angry look again.

"Did you really bring me roses and chocolates?" he asked, his voice calm, too calm.

"M-my sis told me that's what you're supposed to do when you visit someone in hospital – she thinks you're in hospital, you know – bring flowers and a box of chocolates," Casey defended himself, although his voice was all shaky. "A-and roses were the only flowers I could name in that s-stupid flower shop."

"Out." Raph's voice had gained a little more calm which was a bad thing, a really bad thing. It was the calm before the storm – or in Raph's case, tornado.

"What?"

"You heard me, Casey! GET OUT!"

Casey looked at Raph for a moment, totally confused, but the fury blazing in Raph's eyes made him back away slowly.

Well, too slowly in Raph's opinion. He grabbed the bouquet and threw it at Casey, hitting him right in the face.

"Did you just throw a bunch of roses into my face?" Casey asked disbelievingly, as the bouquet landed on the floor with rustling sound.

"Get out or the next thing I'm gonna throw into your face is a bunch of shuriken!"

Casey didn't need to be told twice and quickly buzzed off.

Raph growled as he picked up the box of chocolates in an attempt of tossing them to the roses on the floor, but then he rethought that and instead opened the box and started eating some.

Really, he had been feeling so much better after this delicious breakfast, even had managed to forget the pain in his ankle for a little while. So why had Casey had to come here and bring him roses and chocolates and remind him of his actual condition? And why had Casey had to act as if Raph needed to be treated differently now that he was hurt? Why did Casey think he had to pity him? WHY!?

He growled again and shoved some more chocolates into his mouth.


	4. Talks

On her way to the lair later that day, April met Casey in the tunnel. She frowned when she caught sight of him. He looked miserable. And why was he on his way back home already? He spent so much time at the lair, and seeing him leave it on Sunday around midday felt a little odd. And he didn't seem like he was in a hurry, but instead trotted leisurely. Did he have some family meeting? But why was he looking so sad then? Well, okay, family meetings could make one sad, she knew that. But still, this all seemed a little strange.

"Hey there, Casey!" she greeted him with a smile.

Casey, who had kept his eyes lowered while he was walking, stopped and looked at her.

"Oh, hey, Red," he said tonelessly.

Okay, something sure was wrong.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing."

April just twisted her mouth and looked at him sternly.

"Okay, okay!" he said. "Something's wrong, okay?"

"And this something is…?"

Casey let out a sigh. "Raph."

April gave a little nod. She had been afraid, he would say that. She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest. This would take a little while.

"And what exactly happened?"

And then Casey recounted what had happened earlier, and April really had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from bursting into laughter when he told her about the roses and the box of chocolates, but she somehow managed to stay all calm and serious, although she knew she would break out into hysterical laughter later today at the image of Casey handing Raph red roses and a box of chocolate. This was just hilarious!

But she kept listening to Casey's story, nodding reassuringly every now and then.

"…And I don't get it! It was a gift!" Casey said. "I didn't mean no harm! I wanted him to feel better. It's my fault he's hurt!"

"No, it is not," April said, shaking her head slightly.

"It _is_!" Casey insisted. "If I hadn't been standing there, where that stupid wall was coming down and could have flattened me, Raph would be okay."

April heaved a sigh. Oh, she knew that feeling so well! If her father and she hadn't been going for a walk that night more than a year ago, the Kraang would never have kidnapped them. But she had learned to see it that way: They could have kidnapped them somewhere else, and maybe wherever that would have been, the turtles wouldn't have been able to see them. So it had been good, in a screwed kind of way.

And she needed to make Casey see his situation in the same light.

"If you had been standing somewhere else, maybe Raph wouldn't have been able to bail you out and you would have been flattened. Or maybe you both would have been buried by that wall. So I'd say it was good. Well, not 'good' in the sense of 'man, I'm glad that happened', but 'man, I'm glad it hadn't gotten any worse'." She shrugged.

"But Raph…"

"It is just a broken ankle, Casey. I know, Raph hates it and who could blame him? But it's not like it would kill him. He's gonna be fine in a few weeks."

"He was so angry, April."

"Wow, now that's a surprise! An angry Raph! I think I have never seen him angry before!"

She couldn't help, but grin broadly, and maybe the little teasing would cheer Casey up. And it seemed to work, because Casey curled his lips into a small smile.

_Gotcha!_, April thought.

"You know Raph," she continued, her voice now serious again. "He hates being needy and he hates not being able to hit someone. So, yeah, sure he's angry and all. And Donnie told me that he hates being treated differently when he's hurt. It makes him feel like people are pitying him which, of course, he hates. And that you brought him flowers and chocolates sort of was the final straw, I guess."

"I just wanted to make him feel better," Casey mumbled.

"I know that, and Donnie knows that, and Mikey and Leo, too. Maybe even Raph, deep down his angry self," April replied. "It's just that he hates to be reminded that he is sort of _constricted_ at the moment. And under no circumstances make him feel like he is not the usual tough guy you know. He hates that!"

"But sometimes he needs help, I think. What am I supposed to do then?"

"Make it look like it's no big deal," April explained. "That's how his brothers handle it."

Casey thought about that for a moment. "Okay, I think I can handle that."

"Sure you can!"

Casey looked at April and gave her a warm smile. "Thanks, Red!"

"You're welcome," April replied and pushed herself off the wall into a standing position again. "And if you'll excuse me now, I have to beard the lion…uhm…turtle in his den."

Casey gave a little laugh. "Well, good luck with that, Red!"

"I'm a pro, I don't need luck!" April said, sticking her nose up in the air in a playful way.

Casey laughed a little more. "Well, good luck anyway. I'm sure you'll need it nonetheless," he said and then waved at her. "I'll go home now and explain my sis that not every patient loves to get flowers and chocolates. See you around, April!"

"Bye, Casey!"

* * *

><p>Raph had just eaten the last of the chocolates in the box and tossed the box to the roses on the floor with a grunt.<p>

_Way to go, Raph! Eating chocolates like some stupid diva when you're feeling down. But hey, you can work it all off at the dojo later. Oh, wait, no, you can't!_

He growled and folded his arms over his plastron. This day had just gotten worse.

When there was a knock on the door, he thought for a moment of pretending he had fallen asleep again, but on the other, who said he would be feeling any better later?

"Come in!" he said in his grumpiest voice, and when a second later, April opened the door, he added in slightly friendlier tone, "April."

The teenage girl just smiled at him. "Hey, Raph!"

She frowned a little when she found the grave of flowers with an empty box of chocolates on top of it on the floor, but then she remembered what Donnie had told her, so she simply stepped over it as if it wasn't there and sat down on the edge of Raph's bed.

She was about to ask him how he was feeling, but the grumpy look on his face made her decide otherwise, so she decided to get to the point straightforwardly.

"Well, I have something for you," she announced, and when she saw the alarmed look on his face, she had nearly added that it wasn't roses or chocolates, but she bit her tongue just in time.

No need to bring the Casey-incident up too much.

So she just retrieved a bulky book out of her messenger bag. "I was rearranging my bookshelf yesterday and found this," she explained, handing Raph the book.

He frowned at it for a moment before he took it reluctantly. He examined the cover. _Realms – The Return of the Lost King_, said the title, and it was written in this ornamental font typical for fantasy books. And the cover image showed some old castle.

Raph looked back at April, his frown even deeper.

April shrugged. "I thought you might like it. Lots of fights and blood and killing."

Again, she had to bite her tongue or else she would have said something about him having enough time to read at hand at the moment, but she knew that he wouldn't want to hear that. So it was better left unspoken.

"Okay," was all he answered as he put it on the shelf at the head of his bed.

April just smiled at him.

"So, I brought pizza gyoza from Mr. Murakami. Wanna join us for lunch?" she asked as she got up again.

"Sure." Raph said with a shrug. Okay, he had just eaten a box of chocolates and had had a sumptuous breakfast, but he would gain weight anyway in this six weeks of no training, so who cared?

And with that he heaved himself into his office chair and followed April outside.

April made sure to not step on the roses as she had done when she had entered the room, and from the corner of her eye she could see that Raph steered clear of the flowers on the floor, too, and this somehow made her smile.


	5. Useless

**Chapter 05: Useless**

The following days, sleeping was what Raph was doing most of the time. Sleep was his friend. It let him forget how much he was hurting, it helped forget his current condition, and he simply loved the state between sleep and waiting, this sweet in-between stage where everything was just golden and pleasant and fine. He would sleep just to reach that state later. His world was complete there, now more than ever.

Bu then, there was this moment, too, when he finally had to wake up, when he couldn't hold on to this state any longer. And this was when the truth hit him with full force, when he realized that his foot was still in the support splint, when he knew he couldn't train today either. So he started each morning with a frown and a sigh.

Like every morning Raph got up, heaved himself into the office chair and rolled to the kitchen. He listened for any noises in his brothers' rooms, for any movements, even peeked inside Leo's room, but it was empty. So his brothers were already up. Good. That meant breakfast should be finished soon.

But when he had finally made his way to the kitchen by jumping the stairs with the office chair under his arm, he stopped in the entrance and his eyes widened in shock. The kitchen was empty.

What was going on here?

Slight panic rose within him. Where were his brothers? He hadn't heard any noises from the dojo.

_Okay, maybe they're having some morning meditation session_, he tried to calm himself. Yes, this had to be it.

With a determined nod he rolled over to the dojo – only to find it empty, too.

Now he was out of ideas, and panic took over again. His brothers were gone!

At that moment, the door of Splinter's room slid open and the ninja master appeared in the dojo.

Raph let out a quick sigh of relief. At least his sensei was still here. But then he was all panic again.

"Sensei!" he addressed Splinter. "The others, they're gone!"

Splinter looked at him slightly confused.

"Well, of course they are," he said in a calm voice.

"What!?" If any more panic could have been added to Raph's current state, this would have been the moment. "WHY are they gone, sensei? What happened? Are we under attack? Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Splinter frowned. "Raphael, please calm down. They are gone because they are on their patrol."

"What!? In the morning? During daytime?" Raph's eyes widened even more. Had his brothers totally lost it?

Splinter choked a laugh as he realized what was going on here, but couldn't fight back a soft chuckle.

"Raphael," he said to his son. "Everything is fine. Your brothers have left for their _evening_ patrol."

Raph blinked a few times. "W-wait, what?"

"Raphael, it is already nine o'clock in the evening." Splinter looked at his son amusedly. "You have been sleeping all day."

"You serious?" Raph's jaw dropped a little. But now that he thought of it, he hadn't looked at the watch all day, so yes, this most certainly was a possibility.

Splinter replied with a nod.

"Uhm, okay," he said then, straightening up in his seat, forcing his facial features into a serious look. "I'll be in the kitchen then."

And with that he rolled out of the dojo.

* * *

><p>After having a very late breakfast, Raph was in the living room again. He had turned the TV on, but he just couldn't concentrate on what was on. His thoughts always drifted to his brothers.<p>

What if they got into trouble? He wouldn't be there to help them!

Okay, not that he would be much of a help anyway, with his broken ankle and all, but he could still operate the Shellraiser's weapons, right? And maybe he could even ride the Stealth Bike, so if they needed him he _could_ help. He _would_ help!

But they usually went on their evening patrols by foot, so this was off limits for him now.

He sighed. Maybe he should call them, just check if they were okay.

But no, this was stupid! He would seem like dragon, checking on her husband and making sure he wasn't going to a pub after work.

No, no, he wouldn't call them.

Besides, why was he so worried today? He hadn't been that worried yesterday or the day before yesterday, so why was he worried now? Because he hadn't seen them leave? Because if he had he could convince himself that they left in a great mood and in a good condition and that they would be able to face whatever was waiting for them topside? Was _that_ the reason?

He thought so. He hadn't seen them leave tonight. He didn't know if maybe one of them seemed a bit down or unconcentrated, he just didn't know.

Okay, this wasn't getting him anywhere. Painting worst case-scenarios in his head was making everything just worse. He needed to do something.

But with a broken ankle, his opportunities sure were limited. He couldn't even play a game of pinball, because he would need both legs for this and couldn't play from a sitting position. He glanced over at the TV where this very old gaming console, which Donnie had repaired for Mikey last week, was resting. Mikey had shown him how to play yesterday. And although Raph had acted as if he hadn't been interested at all, he still had paid attention.

This could work. He needed to concentrate to play this game.

He got up and hopped over to the TV on his good leg.

* * *

><p>Two hours later he was so absorbed by the game, he had completely forgotten to worry over his brothers. The game was pretty easy, though, just pushing a few buttons, making this pixelated figure, which should be some sort of a warrior jump around and run and swing its sword. But it sure was entertaining. And he couldn't wait to surpass Mikey's high score!<p>

It was that moment when he heard voices from the lair's entrance, and they somehow seemed odd.

He quickly turned his head, and when he saw what was going on, he rose in no time, balancing on one foot. He tossed the gaming console away. High scores didn't matter any longer. Nothing mattered any longer.

His eyes grew wide as he saw how Leo had wrapped his mask over his left forearm.

"What happened?" Raph asked immediately, trying his best to keep the panic out of voice, but failed completely.

"Just a scratch," Leo said. "We ran into a group of Purple Dragons, and one of them got lucky with his knife."

Raph's eyes widened even more.

"It's not that bad, really," Leo said quickly, but Raph saw things a little differently.

* * *

><p>Moments later, Raph was sitting on the left side of the couch where he could easily rest his ankle on a pillow and watched how Donnie patched Leo up.<p>

Raph's brow was furrowed, his mouth pressed into a stern line, and he had his arms crossed over his plastron.

If he had been there, he thought, this would never have happened. Purple Dragons never got that lucky when he was around. He should have been there!

But then realization hit him. Even if he had, there would have been nothing he could have done. The fight had taken place in a small side street. Neither the Shellraiser nor the Stealth Bike would have been of any use. He wouldn't have been able to fire any weapon without risking hitting his brothers, too.

He clenched his fists without unfolding his arms, until his fingers started hurting.

_I'm useless!_


	6. Walking Stick

**Chapter 06: Walking Stick**

His brothers had gone to bed an hour ago, but Raph still was up. After sleeping all day and tonight's events, he was too churned up to even think of sleep.

Leo was hurt, and although this still could have happened if Raph had been around, he couldn't stop feeling as if he should have been there to help his brother. Oh, he hated the Kraang even more than he had ever done before! Stupid Kraang and stupid ceilings coming down! He had been able to save Casey, his best friend, but he hadn't been careful enough. If he had, he wouldn't have gotten hurt, he would still have been able to be there and help Leo, to wrench this damned knife from this damned Purple Dragon's hand. And he would have succeeded! He knew it.

No one would hurt his brothers if he could help it.

But the terrible truth was he couldn't help at the moment, not for the next six weeks. Well, six weeks, if he was lucky. He still needed to get back in shape after that. But heck, as soon as he could stand on two legs again, he was so going to join them on their patrols. And he wanted to see Leo trying to stop him from that.

Raph took a deep breath and raised his hands to his temples as a terrible headache was trying to tear his head apart.

_Well, no wonder after all this thinking_, he said to himself. _I wonder how Donnie manages to do this incredible amount of thinking every day without squirming in pain. His headaches must be unbearable._

Raph pondered on that for a moment.

_Or maybe he doesn't have headaches at all. We're talking about Donnie here. I guess his brain is built differently from ours._

He groaned a little as another flash of pain rushed through his head.

_Speaking of Donnie…_

With that he got up and hopped to his office chair.

* * *

><p>"D-…" He could stop most of his brother's name before it had left his mouth when he had opened the door to Donnie's room and found it dark. Donnie had already gone to sleep and only stirred a little in his sleep at Raph opening the door.<p>

Raph watched this with a frown. It was unusual for Donnie going to sleep this early. It was only a little bit past midnight, and yes, he had checked beforehand. After a whole day of sleeping he knew that his sense of time wasn't the best at the moment.

And Donnie usually stayed up until one or two o'clock in the morning, working on his projects or reading. But apparently not today.

Raph choked a sigh, as he pushed the office chair backwards and closed the door again.

Looked like he had to take care of his medication himself tonight. He rolled over to the kitchen, fetching himself an aspirin.

Back in bed, he braced himself for a night of staring at the ceiling – and thinking.

_No! No thinking! _

He had had a month's amount of thinking today already. Well, _his_ month's amount which probably was three times the thinking Mikey did, maybe a quarter of what Leo's monthly thinking-amount was, and most probably a very small amount of thinking Donnie did every day.

His hand rushed to his temples again.

Heck, when would that aspirin finally show affect?

_No thinking, Raph! If Donnie can shut down his precious brain every now and then, you can do that for a night!_

* * *

><p>He must have fallen asleep over this eventually because when he opened his eyes again and glanced at his T-phone, it was already morning.<p>

With a sigh he got up, rolling out of his room on the office chair.

On his way to the kitchen he heard noises coming from the dojo, and he was very relieved to hear that.

After waking up to complete silence yesterday, he had been afraid that would happen today as well, that his brothers would be gone again. He knew how stupid this was, how irrational. It was daytime, he had checked. Of course they were here! But a smile cracked his grumpy morning face nonetheless.

But it only lasted for as long as it took him to peek into the dojo, to catch a glimpse of Leo's bandaged arm, to make him frown again.

Without a word of greeting he left again.

All the anger from yesterday that had been gone this morning washed over him again and he gritted his teeth. There had to be something he could do. He needed to move, he needed to hit something. And he needed to do that _now_.

He had reached the living room and set eyes on the practice dummy. He wasn't sure if this would work. But he had to try.

* * *

><p>It turned out that it worked better than he had hoped. Sitting on his office chair, his broken ankle resting on a stool, he was punching the practice dummy. And heck, it felt good!<p>

With each punch he landed on the dummy, some of his anger faded away.

His punches had only been testing so far, but now he felt secure enough to give the dummy some proper punching.

He hauled off and hit the dummy with so much force, it swung backwards. What he had forgotten, though, was that it would swing back at him then as well. And unable to jump out of the way, all he could do was bringing up his hands to protect his face.

The dummy hit him and sent him twirling backwards on his office chair. And the next thing he remembered was the splashing of water as he and his office chair fell into the pool.

Being a turtle, water was no threat to him, but he swallowed some water nonetheless when he gasped in surprise.

But as soon as he had figured out what had happened he broke the surface and swam to the pool edge, heaving himself out of the water, coughing the little water he had swallowed out of his lungs.

At that moment his brothers and Splinter came running into the living room, and they figured out pretty soon what must have happened when the saw a drenched Raph sitting on the pool edge, a swinging practice dummy, and an office chair at the bottom of the pool.

Wordlessly, Donnie and Leo went to Raph, set him on his good foot and helped him to the couch. Mikey darted out of the living room only to return with a towel seconds later. He handed Raph the towel without saying anything – his brothers knew when it was better for them to remain silent, to not make any fun, Raph had to give them that.

Still coughing, Raph took the towel and started drying himself, and when he finally had stopped coughing, he realized Splinter was standing in front of him.

"I've let you get away with this office chair for way too long now, Raphael," he said. "No more rolling around on this thing. You will use crutches from now on. They are safer."

"No way!" Raph protested. "I hate crutches!"

"What about a walking stick?" Donnie suggested. "It could be enough if you don't move too much."

Raph blew a raspberry. "Walking sticks are for old people, Donnie!"

His brothers' eyes widened in shock and when Raph looked at Splinter resting his hands on his green walking stick, he knew why.

Splinter just raised a brow at him.

"N-not that I mean you're old, sensei!" he said quickly. "Just…uhm…_older_, you know."

Splinter tapped his walking stick on the floor.

"Walking stick or crutches, Raphael," he said. "It is your decision. But no more office chairs."

"But…"

"You heard me!"

Raph let out a deep breath. "Hai sensei."

Splinter just nodded and turned to leave, tapping his walking stick to the floor just a little louder than usual with each step.


	7. Make-Over

**Chapter 07: Make-Over**

Raphael had come back to his room two hours ago. His brothers had another training session after lunch. He was lying on his bed, and he really, really needed to go to the bathroom now. But instead of getting up, he just turned his head and glared at the crutches leaning at the wall next to his bed.

He was so not going to use them!

It had been humiliating enough when he had to go back to his room earlier today after the loss of his office chair and Splinter insisting that he had to use crutches or a walking stick due to safety reasons.

Not wanting to annoy his sensei any more than he had already done with his infelicitous comment on walking sticks and old people, he had decided against a walking stick. Another reason for this decision had been that his brother probably would have called him an old man as long as he would have to use a walking stick.

So, only crutches had been left for him. But he still hated them. They were so boring and ugly and uncool. And he was going to use them as little as possible, that was for sure.

But still, he really needed to go to the bathroom now.

_Okay, just stop thinking about it, maybe you'll forget it then. Think of something else._

He rolled on his side and looked at the bouquet of roses Casey had brought him the other day and which Raph had hidden in a vase behind a bunch of his stuff, so no one who entered his room would see it.

The roses already went limp, he realized now. Maybe he should get them some fresh water.

He could get a plastic bottle from the kitchen and fill it with some water, some fresh water from the faucet. He just needed to sneak in there and turn on the water, let it run until it was all cold and…

_Damnit!_

Now he needed to go to the bathroom more urgently than before.

He glared back at the crutches.

_Just no! Stop thinking about water and you are going to be okay! No running water, no…Argh!_

Maybe he could jump to the bathroom on one leg, maybe Splinter wouldn't realize.

But when he still was thinking about this possibility there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Raph asked.

The door opened a little and a lanky human hand was popped inside, pivoting a white handkerchief.

"I…I come in peace!" said Casey's voice from the other side of the door.

Raph just rolled his eyes as he sat up. "It's okay, Casey, you can come in."

The door was opened a little wider and Casey looked inside. "Really?"

"Really," Raph confirmed.

"Okay," said Casey a little insecurely and stuffed the handkerchief into the pocked of his pants.

Raph looked at the crutches once more. There still was this bathroom-problem, but he really didn't want to use the crutches. He looked back at Casey.

Maybe this would work.

"Hey, man, could you give me a hand?" Raph asked.

"With what?"

"I need to go to the bathroom. Can I lean on you?"

"Suuuuure," Casey replied, a little unsure about this plan. Raph was smaller and heavier than he was, so this sure would be a challenge. He set eyes on the crutches.

"Why don't you use these cr…?"

"No crutches!" Raph yelled.

"O-okay." Casey stepped back a little, but then he took a deep breath and walked over to Raph to help him up.

* * *

><p>"Can't you walk any slower, Casey?" Raph asked in a low voice. "I think we're still going faster than a snail."<p>

"Very…funny," Casey panted. "Why are we…whispering?"

"I don't want the others to hear us," Raph replied.

And that was the truth. He was afraid what Master Splinter would say to this – and that his brothers could make fun of them. And a funny sight, they sure were. Casey was walking with a stoop to be the same height as Raph and had one arm wrapped around Raph's shell and using the other hand to keep Raph's arm that was wrapped around his shoulders, in place.

Casey had to admit, he hadn't thought that it would be easy, but he had sort of forgotten how heavy exactly Raph was. And thanks to his broken ankle he had to keep off of his one leg as much as possible which meant that with every second step, Casey had to carry nearly all of Raph's weight.

But they arrived at the bathroom somehow – and without getting spotted on by the others which really was a plus.

Raph reached for the door knob and opened the door, finally lifting his weight from Casey shoulders as he balanced on one leg.

"Okay, I can take it from here," he said.

Casey tried not to show how relieved he was to get a little break.

But when Raph tried to jump through the open door, he somehow managed to bump against the doorframe with one shoulder. The impact – as small as it was – unbalanced him and he flailed about. Casey tried to catch him, as Raph fell backwards, and although Casey tried his best to make a stand against the falling turtle, Raph's weight was too much for him, and they soon hit the floor, Raph landing on Casey, pinning him on the ground with his carapace.

"Oof," Casey made as all the air was pressed out of his lungs.

There was a moment of silence before Raph spoke.

"You okay, Casey?"

"Y-yes," Casey hissed, and Raph rolled of him as quickly as he could.

"Well, okay then," he replied. "As I said I can take it from here."

And with that he crawled into the bathroom on all fours, pushing the door shut.

"Yeah, okay," Casey said, still lying on the ground. "T-take your time."

* * *

><p>Casey had no idea how long he had been lying there. He felt totally exhausted, his body hurt, and he sure was going to have some bruises later.<p>

"Casey, I don't think that's the best place to take a nap," a familiar voice said, and Casey cracked his eyes open to look at Leo.

"I'm not taking a nap!" he responded, making no move. "I'm taking a little rest."

"A little rest? From what? Having to walk all the way from Raph's room to the bathroom?"

"Having to walk all the way from Raph's room to the bathroom with Raph leaning on me," Casey clarified.

"What? Why didn't he use his crutches?"

Casey shrugged. "Dunno."

Leo walked over to the bathroom door, and Casey finally felt strong enough to sit up.

Leo knocked on the door. "Raph, you in there?"

"No, it's my evil twin," came the reply from inside. "Of course it's me!"

"Why don't you have your crutches with you?"

"I…uhm…forgot about them."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Sure. I'll get them for you."

"Ooooookay."

* * *

><p>When Leo arrived at Raph's room he found Mikey sitting on Raph's bed, pottering around with the crutches. Only when he came closer, he realized Mikey was wrapping them with red tape.<p>

"Mikey?"

Mikey jumped a little, having been too caught up in his work to recognize his brother earlier.

"Oh…uhm…hey, Leo!"

"What are you doing?"

Mikey looked down on the crutches.

"I walked past Raph's room and saw that his crutches were still here, but he was gone. And we all know how much he hates the crutches because they're uncool, so I thought I make them a little cooler for him," he explained and wrapped the last bit of the one crutch he was working on with red tape. The other was already finished.

"Aw, Mikey," Leo said, giving his brother a warm smile. "That's a nice idea. But don't be sad if it doesn't work. You know Raph."

Mikey nodded. "Most certainly do. But it's worth a try."

"It sure is," Leo replied. "Let's bring them to him."

Mikey nodded and handed Leo the crutches and got up to join his brother on their way back to Raph.

"You know, Raph would have gotten really mad if he had found you in his room," Leo said.

"No worries!" Mikey replied with a calming gesture. "Raph isn't quite the stealthiest at the moment."

Leo thought about that for a moment. "Agreed."

* * *

><p>When they came back to the bathroom, Raph was already waiting for them, standing in the doorway on his good leg and giving himself support by hanging on to the doorframe. Casey was leaning on the wall next to him, still looking a bit exhausted.<p>

Raph looked at the crutches for a moment as Leo handed them to him. They looked different with the red tape-wrapping, a little bit more bearable.

"Who gave them a make-over?" he asked.

"I did!" Mikey called out. "Do you like it? They're red now. That's your color."

"I'm not colorblind," Raph replied with a shrug, took the crutches and started walking down the corridor.

Something was definitely different, Leo realized. Raph hadn't yelled because of the crutches, and he now wasn't cursing on his way down the corridor.

He turned to look at Mikey and the youngest turtle gave him a big, confident grin.

Leo just chuckled and patted Mikey's shoulder approvingly.


	8. A Whole New World

**Chapter 08: A Whole New World**

The thing with being hurt and not able to move properly was that it really limited Raph's options to kill time. He couldn't train, he couldn't join his brothers on patrols, and Splinter had clearly forbidden that he tried to punch the practice dummy again, so yes, being hurt was pretty boring.

And he was dependent on his brothers or Casey or April to keep him entertained by talking to him or – more often – play cards or a board game.

Walking over to the living room on his crutches Raph was thinking of the most exciting thing he had experienced yesterday – smuggling the bouquet of roses Casey had given him the other day out of his room because the roses had been totally withered already. Raph was sure he had done a quite good job. He had put the withered flowers into a plastic bag, waited until his brothers had left for their evening patrol, and then he had walked over to the kitchen on his crutches with the plastic bag handles over one of his wrists. He had stuffed the bag into the garbage can as deep as possible, and his brothers hadn't asked any questions today, so Raph felt certain that he had done a marvelous job and the roses had went undetected.

When he arrived in the living room, he found it empty and silent. His brothers had obviously left for their patrol already, he thought. And Casey and April had one of these stupid tests tomorrow, so they wouldn't show up in the lair today. He knew because he had sent them both texts earlier today.

Raph heaved a sigh and walked back to his room, slumping down on the bed minutes later, and placed the crutches next to his bed.

He frowned when he looked at them. Sure, he still hated them, but they weren't as bad as he had expected. At least they were looking cool now with all the red tape. And he had to admit, walking on them was so much easier than jumping around on one leg or rolling around on an office chair. He would never say that crutches were cool – perish the thought! – but at least crutches weren't as stupid and uncool as they had seemed to be in the first place.

But that still didn't help with his current boredom-problem.

Well, he could get back to the living room and watch TV, but he had done that a lot lately, and he really didn't feel like it now. Or maybe he could play another video game. But he had already beaten all of Mikey's high scores, leaving the youngest turtle speechless and wide-eyed. No, he didn't feel like that either.

What he really felt like was getting this stupid support split off and running around topside, beating Foot ninja and Purple Dragons and jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he was all exhausted and sweating and feeling alive.

All he felt right now was totally bored.

He let his eyes wander around his room. There had to be something that could get him out of this boredom.

And finally, his eyes were resting on the book April had brought him a few days ago and that he had placed on the shelf at the head of his bed and not touched ever since.

April had said that it was a lot about fights and blood and killing, so that sounded okay. It at least didn't sound girly. So maybe he should give it a try.

He made himself comfortable, took the book and opened it.

The letters were sort of overwhelming at first, all this letters! No pictures! Heck, this was so different from reading a magazine!

But then he blinked the confusion away, waited until the letters formed into words, and words formed into sentences. And then he started reading.

_There were rumors about the Shadow Woods. Travelers had went missing in there, and rumors said that you could still hear them screaming._

_Rumors said that in Shadow Woods, not only the animals, but their shadows too were alive, that your own shadow would betray you in there, starting moving without following your movements, developing a life of its own, reaching out for you, attacking you, sucking out your soul, taking away your flesh and making it its own, until all that was left of you was a shadow, a hollow shadow without a body, a whisper, a scream.  
>That was what they said about the Shadow Woods. But Lerani had never given much about rumors or what people said. He had always had more important things to do.<br>And so he entered the Shadow Woods without any fear, only his feet were cold from having walked for too long in the snow, but then the cold crept up his body, freezing his inside, and from the corner of his eye he could see how his shadow lifted a hand, although his own hands were hanging on his sides.  
>Oh, he should have listened!<em>

Raph's jaw literally dropped while reading this. No, this surely wasn't girly at all! No, this was good. Heck, this was brilliant! This was a whole new world for him!

* * *

><p>When his brothers arrived back home from their patrol, they were a little surprised to not find Raph in the living room. This was where he spent most of his time now, watching TV and playing video games.<p>

"At least he's not beating another one of my high scores," Mikey said.

"I thought he had already beaten all of your high scores," Donnie replied, and Mikey shot him an angry glance.

"For now, yes. But I will get them all back, I swear, and if it's the last thing I'm gonna do!"

Leo just rolled his eyes. "Well, video games or not, let's go get him. I guess he wouldn't mind joining us for some 'Super Robo Mecha Force Five!'."

His brothers nodded their agreement.

But when they had had arrived at Raph's room and silently opened the door after there hadn't been any reply to their five times of knocking, their eyes widened in surprise as they found their brother burying his nose in a book.

After a moment of shock Leo closed the door again.

"Is Raph…reading…a book?" Mikey asked.

"It looks like it," Donnie said. "That's…weird."

"Is it possible he got brain-switched again? That happened to him once. Maybe it happened again! Maybe he has switched brains with Donnie!" Mikey called out in a panicked voice.

"Calm down, shellbrain!" Donnie replied. "I'm still me which means Raph is still him."

"But what if only half your brains got switched?" Mikey said. "You're so intelligent, Donnie, you wouldn't even notice that half your brain is missing with all the knowledge you have stored in the other half!"

"Relax, Mikey!" Donnie tried again. "As unusual as it is, Raph is just reading a book."

"But…"

"Donnie's right, Mikey," Leo chimed in. "And he seems to be pretty intrigued by it, so we better leave him alone."

"But…"

"It's okay, Mikey," Leo said again.

"But…"

"'Super Robo Mecha Force Five!' now!" Leo finally ordered, shoving Mikey back to the living room. "Come on!"

"But…"

Donnie just shook his head slightly and followed them.


	9. Reading Material

**Chapter 09: Reading Material**

_And in the darkness, they waited._

Raph turned the last page of the book with a confused look on his face. He turned back, flipped through the last five pages, but no, he hadn't been mistaken. This had been the last sentence of the book.

He took the book in both hands and shook it as if this would make more pages or letters fall out, but it was of no use. With a groan he put the book aside.

So this was it?

He had spent all his free time of the last three days reading and now it was over? Just like that? He had only come out of his room to join his brothers for meals, he had skipped their "Super Robo Mecha Force Five!"-marathons, he had only asked Donnie for pain killers when he had absolutely needed them and barely lifted his head when his genius brother had come to his room for Raph's thrombosis injections – which from Donnie's point of view surely must have been a relief – and now it was _over_!?

And really, so many questions were still floating around in Raph's head, questions the book had left unanswered. What was with the shadow zombies, and why had they suddenly started to leave Shadow Woods? And the lost king was back now, but still hadn't gotten his realm back. He was still hiding in the mountains and hadn't even started thinking about a real plan to overthrow the three false kings that had divided the once glorious realm among them after they had killed the lost king's father and made him flee. And why weren't the sorcerers from the Crystal Mountains helping? They had sworn fidelity to the true king, for heaven's sake! Or for the Great Mother's sake, like they would say in the book. And it had been mentioned that the demons had their own plans, but what exactly were their plans?

Raph let himself slump back on his carapace. All these questions unanswered! What was he supposed to do now?

He wasn't blessed with a vivid imagination like Mikey or Donnie or even Leo, so he couldn't come up with an ending all by himself.

He clenched his fists and banged them on the mattress several times.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! If he ever got the chance to put his hands on this author, he was so going to tell him what he thought of ending a story like this!

It was this moment when he heard an all too familiar voice that truly didn't belong to one of his brothers.

April was here!

And with that he grabbed the book, tucked it under his arm, and reached for his crutches.

And then he couldn't get out of his room fast enough.

* * *

><p>April sat down on the couch, preparing herself for another "Super Robo Mecha Force Five!"-marathon. Mikey was lying on the ground in front of her like he usually was, Donnie was sitting next to her, and Leo was sitting next to Donnie. She was about to ask if Raph would join them tonight because he had missed the last few ones, when she found the momentarily disabled turtle approaching her on his crutches. He sat down next to her and handed her back the book she had given him some time ago.<p>

"Here," he said. "I finished it."

"Oh great!" April smiled at him. "Did you like it?"

_I loved it!_, Raph thought, but he quickly bit his tongue before the words made it out of his mouth.

It was one thing to love action movies and animes and martial arts magazines, but loving books was a totally different matter, especially for Raph. He was the tough guy, and anything that could make him look a little bit intellectual was a bit tricky, and even more when he would have to admit it in front of his _brothers_. It would make him look less cool, he thought, and heck, he had a reputation to keep!

"It was…okay," he replied matter-of-factly. "Didn't like the ending, though."

"Why not?" April asked. "I thought it was a pretty awesome foreshadowing of the next book."

"Next book?" Raph furrowed a brow.

"Yes, haven't I mentioned that?" April replied. "This is the first book in a series. There are five other books in the series so far, with number six following next month. So this wasn't the ending."

"It wasn't!?" Raph asked, his voice high-pitched in excitement, and when he realized that, he quickly cleared his throat.

"I mean, so this wasn't the ending, huh?" he added in a voice he hoped sounded indifferent.

"No, no, far from it," April replied.

"And you have the other books as well?"

"Sure!" April grinned at him.

"Really!?" Again Raph couldn't keep the high-pitched sound out of his voice which lead to another throat-clearing before he added, "Well, could you bring me the next book then?"

"Of course!"

"Or wait, better bring me all of them."

April raised a brow at this.

"I…I mean not that I want to read them that desperately, but it would make sure that I won't run out of reading material so easily," he clarified. "Not that a lack of reading material _really_ would be a problem, it's just…well…uhm…you know…"

"I most certainly do," April said with a smile. "I'll bring you the other books tomorrow after school, okay?"

Raph had to bite his tongue again or otherwise he would have asked her to get them right now or bring them before school tomorrow, so all he managed to say was, "Cool."

He wasn't sure if something had given him away. He had thought he had done a pretty good job in hiding his disappointment by putting an extra-grumpy look on his face, but suddenly April rose to her feet.

Well, it was April, he thought. Sometimes she got a feeling about things.

"Or you know what?" she said. "I could go get them right now. Pizza won't be here before forty-five minutes, so I have enough time for that before we start with our marathon tonight."

"You're amaz…" Raph called out, before he cleared his throat again. "I mean, thanks, April."

"You're welcome," April said, giving his shoulder a quick pat when she passed him as she walked over to the exit.

Raph watched her leave, but when he turned back, he found his three brothers looking at him.

"What!?" he asked a little too loud.

"N-nothing!" they replied in one voice before they turned their attention back to the news-report on TV.

Raph crossed his arms over his plastron, a smirk plastered to his face.

Yeah, he still knew how to do it.


	10. Waiting

**Chapter 10: Waiting**

Raph was sitting on the couch, his broken ankle hurting a bit again, but he refused to leave.

Leo hadn't sent him away when April had arrived with the latest news coming from her message board and her research regarding this new Kraang-facility. And so Raph had stayed when April had unfurled the blueprints she had found online on the floor, and he had stayed when she had told them about what she thought the Kraang used this facility for. And he had stayed when Leo had started pondering over the best way to infiltrate the building. He had stayed when Leo had started talking about their plan, telling Donnie and Mikey what their tasks were going to be. And he was still there, now that they were discussing Leo's plan, going into detail and coming up with some what-if-scenarios.

Raph knew these powwows, but for the first time since they had started going on missions, he wasn't really part of it. He was just sitting there, listening, and he felt out of place.

He hadn't even the expertise to help them with a plan. He was no strategist like Leo, no genius like Donnie and April, and of course, he was no fantast like Mikey – and yes, he refused to use the word "fool" here on purpose – who could come up with the weirdest what if-scenarios – or sometimes with things they would have never thought of in the first place.

Raph was a doer, not a thinker. He always preferred practice over theory, and the only reason he listened and participated in the theory-parts was because he needed them for the practice-parts. Raph was a fighter, a react-er, and now he was forced to sit around and listen.

And he was listening, he was listening closely, even more closely than ever before it seemed, checking each and every detail of their plan on its weaknesses because if he couldn't be there to help when something went terribly wrong, he at least wanted to try and warn his brothers beforehand if their plan wasn't good enough.

But so far, there wasn't anything he could object about this plan, but maybe that was because he was neither strategist nor genius nor fantast, and for the first time in his life, Raph wished he was more of a brain-person.

Thing was, he wasn't. He was the muscle, not the brain. And right now, he was feeling really bad about it.

He was listening as Leo went over every detail of their plan once more, and he knew that Donnie was capable of disrupting the security system long enough that they could get in, he knew that Mikey was capable of sneaking in first, and he knew that Leo was capable of having their backs, but still, it felt so wrong not being able to join them tonight.

From his point of view, the plan was good. It should work. But it made him feel so uneasy that he couldn't be there and help his brothers if things went wrong.

At least, Casey wouldn't join them tonight because he had been grounded, and April would stay at the lair, so there were two people less he had to worry about. But three brothers to worry about were still three too many, he thought.

But still, the plan was good, and Raph had to have faith that it would work. And maybe that was the reason Leo hadn't sent him away, but instead had let him stay – to show him that he had a good plan and that they were prepared for all the what-ifs.

That was what Raph was thinking when he watched his brothers leave.

* * *

><p>His brothers were gone for half an hour now, they probably hadn't even reached the facility yet, but Raph was already on pins and needles. He tried to concentrate on the "Super Robo Mecha Force Five!"-episode that was on, but this episode was about Dash Coolstar being separated from his team and the team getting into deep trouble, and right now, Coolstar tried to get back to them and save them because without him, they were as good as dead.<p>

No, not what Raph wanted to watch right now. Actually, he had no idea what he wanted to watch right now. He was afraid to zap through the channels because maybe he would catch a news-report that told that three dead mutant turtles had been found in the debris of a collapsed building.

He could try to read in the second book of "Realms" April had brought him. He had nearly finished it, but somehow he knew that he wouldn't be able to concentrate on that either.

He crossed his arms over his plastron and glanced over to April. The teenage girl was tapping away on her laptop with a calm look on her face which made Raph's eyes widen in surprise.

_How does she do that?_, Raph asked himself. _She must be worried, too, how can she stay so calm?_

He looked back at the TV without really noticing what was going on in that episode. He was too lost in thought, thinking about how April managed to stay so calm.

Suddenly, he understood why April had always been so eager to join them on missions as soon as she could block a punch. Being forced to wait while others were risking their lives was just _horrible_.

He was going through all the things that could go wrong in his head over and over, and it had only been _half an hour!_

He closed his eyes for a split second, but already long enough to see Leo lying on the ground, badly hurt and bleeding.

Argh! He was going insane here!

Again, he looked over to April, who still was working on her laptop with a totally calm face.

"Okay, I give up!" Raph called out, throwing his arms up in the air in a surrendering gesture. "How do you do it?"

April turned to him with a frown. "What do you mean?"

"How do you stay so calm!? I mean the others are out there, risking their lives, and we are sitting on a freaking couch and watching TV! I'm going nuts!"

April gave a soft chuckle.

"You want to know how I can stay so calm?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes!"

"Simple." April's smile deepened as she turned her laptop a bit to show Raph what she had been working on, and Raph recognized her message board.

"I work," she explained.

"Work?"

April nodded. "It's the best I can do at the moment, trying to get my thoughts elsewhere with something I really need to concentrate on, and these new Kraang-sightings keep me pretty busy."

"I can't even concentrate on TV!" Raph replied.

"Because the TV doesn't keep your brain busy enough," April explained. "You need something that absorbs all your attention."

"So that's how it works?"

April nodded and turned back to her laptop.

Raph thought about that for a moment. Sure, he knew that episode of "Super Robo Mecha Force Five!", and as exciting as "Realms" was, he got distracted easily when something as important as his brothers' lives was on stake. So maybe he should try this all of his attention-thing.

But what kind of work would need all of his attention?

He glanced at April again.

"Uhm, Arpil?" he asked. "Think I can help?"

April looked up from her laptop again. "Maybe," she said. "Right now, I'm collecting the most recent Kraang-sightings, but I'm only writing the locations down in a doc, meaning to tag them on a map later. But maybe you could do that."

"Sure thing!" Raph replied.

April nodded, put her laptop aside and went over to Donnie's lab and returned moments later with a bunch of paper, unfolding a map of New York on the floor.

She handed Raph a highlighter, taking her seat on the couch again, and the mutant turtle let himself slip to the floor.

"Okay, I'm telling you the locations and you highlight them on the map. Ready?"

"I was born ready!" Raph replied, popping off the cap of the highlighter.

April smiled and then turned to her laptop, telling Raph the first location.

When later that night the others returned from their mission, Raph had absolutely no idea, how much time had passed. He had been so busy with this map, finding the right locations on the map, that he had simply forgotten the time. But this was all forgotten, when he set eyes on them. They seemed all unharmed and Raph sent a silent thank you heavenwards.

April put her laptop aside almost immediately when she saw the others and got to her feet.

"You're back!" April called out. "How did it go?"

"Well, let's put it that way," Mikey said, straightening in a self-conscious pose. "There's one Kraang-facility less on this planet."

"Good!" April said with a smile.

Raph nodded and heaved himself back on the couch, as the others were walking over to them. Mikey had already started with his detailed explanation of what had happened this night.

Raph was sure that the others were too busy listening to Mikey, so he allowed himself to let out a sigh of relief. He was so glad this was over. He wouldn't have to worry again tonight, and their next mission seemed too far away to worry about just yet. And maybe he would be able to join them again next time.

_Yes, maybe_, he hoped.

It was a pious hope, he knew that, but sometimes hope was all that was left.


	11. Surprises

**Chapter 11: Surprises**

With a sigh Raph closed the book and placed it on the shelf at the head of his bed. This had been the third book of "Realms" and he still was highly intrigued with the story. Actually, he had spent nearly all week reading, and now only two more books were waiting for him until he had to face a hiatus before the new book was out.

Well, maybe he had to wait even longer than that because these were April's books, and when she bought the new book, she probably wanted to read it first.

So he better rationed his reading material wisely.

And this meant, no more reading for him today.

He glanced around his room. So what else could he do?

He had grown so used to reading that he somehow lacked ideas here.

He set eyes on his dumbbells. Maybe he could train with them for a little while. As long as he could do that while sitting, it should be okay.

But then he remembered what had happened last time when he had tried to train a little. Yes, this had been a bit different with the practice dummy and an office chair being included, but he still was a little cautious.

He of course could ask Donnie about the dumbbells, but this would mean he would have to get up and walk around the lair looking for Donnie, and he really didn't feel like doing that. Or maybe he could call out as loud as possible for Donnie. Or maybe not. This could put his family on alert, and that was another thing he didn't want to do.

So he could either sit around here and do nothing or get up and grab his crutches. He hated sitting around, but right now, he hated getting up just as well, so what should he do?

"Of course!" he called out and picked up his T-phone from the shelf, typing a text to Donnie.

_Think I can train with the dumbbells?_

The reply came almost immediately.

_As long as you stay in a sitting position and don't put weight onto your ankle, yes._

_Thanks Don!_

_Welcome!_

With a relieved sigh Raph placed the T-phone back on his shelf.

He then glanced over to his dumbbells again and realized that maybe he would have to get up to get them. Or maybe if he just leaned out of his bed wide enough, he would be able to grab them without really having to get up.

His bed was so nice and cozy, and he wanted to stay in bed as long as he could.

So he leaned out of his bed, supporting himself with his right hand while his left tried to reach his dumbbells.

_Just a little more, just a liiiiiiiittle more_, he thought while he stretched his arm, stretched his whole body a little more.

He realized too late that he overbalanced and his one arm couldn't support his weight any longer. He tried to break his fall by using his other hand for support, too, but it was too late already, and he landed on the floor with a loud thud.

_Greeeeeeat!_, he thought as he tried to move into a sitting position without setting his broken ankle on the floor, being super-cautious to not put any weight onto it. And he did a great job, until he hit his broken ankle in the support splint on the bed frame. This sent a jolt of pain through his body and made him cry out.

"What's wrong, Raph?" a voice asked and Raph found Leo standing in the door and looking at him worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm _not_ okay, Leo!" Raph called out as he finally managed to heave himself up onto his bed again. "This is all so stupid! Reading is stupid, lying around is stupid, training with my dumbbells is stupid! And the stupidest thing is my broken ankle!"

"Raph…," Leo started in a calm voice, but Raph interrupted him.

"Just leave me alone, Leo, will ya?"

Leo frowned at him, but he knew when it was okay to argue with Raph and when not, and today it was not. So he just nodded and left.

* * *

><p>Before he was back in the living room, Donnie and Mikey came running to him.<p>

"Leo, what happened?" Donnie asked. "We heard a loud noise and Raph crying out."

"Oh, that was Raph?" Mikey asked. "I thought some creepy monster had made it to the lair."

For a moment, Leo anticipated the whacking noise when Raph hit Mikey on the back of his head when he said something stupid, but then he remembered that Raph wasn't even there because Raph had a broken ankle and thought everything was stupid and was annoyed by all of this and…and…

He sighed. "Yes, this was Raph, Mikey."

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, okay."

"Now that this is resolved, would you mind telling us what happened?" Donnie asked again.

"Raph fell out of his bed, I think, and he somehow must have hurt his ankle. And now he's angry again."

Donnie shrugged. "Well, this is Raph. What did you expect him to do? Laugh?"

Leo sighed again. "It would have been a nice change."

"I better check if he's okay," Donnie said, but Leo blocked his way.

"Better not now, Donnie," he said. "Let him cool off first."

Donnie nodded.

And then they all walked to the living room.

But somehow Leo couldn't get the look on Raph's face out of his head. All this anger! But yes, he should have expected that. What he hadn't expected was that there seemed to be more to it, something he couldn't quite place.

And then it hit him. What he had seen in Raph's eyes had been despair. Of course Raph had to be a little desperate! He was used to hit people, to give Foot soldiers and Purple Dragons a proper beat down, to run, to jump, to compete with his brothers during training. So being forced to do nothing must be terrible for him. And boring.

Leo had known that beforehand, but only the hint of despair in Raph's eyes, had made him realize how much.

And then Leo made a decision. They needed to do something about this.

* * *

><p>With a grumpy look on his face, Raph was walking to the living room on his crutches. Leo had told him that he should join them in the living room.<p>

Raph had no idea what this was about. It was time for the evening patrol. Did Leo really want him to watch his brothers leave? Raph usually stayed in his room and read to distract himself from the fact that his brothers were leaving and he had no idea if they would come back, although a patrol usually wasn't as dangerous as a mission that led right into a Kraang-facility.

"Okay, Leo, what is it?" he asked, but then he stopped abruptly, as he realized what was going on in the living room.

His brothers were standing there together with April and Casey with big grins on their faces, the start screen of one Raph's favorite video games was on the TV, six game controllers were spread out on the couch, and a little table with pizza and pizza gyoza and drinks was prepared, too.

Raph blinked at the others.

"Surprise!" they all called out.

"What?" Raph asked with wide eyes. "It's not mutation day, you know."

"No, but we realized you've managed the first two weeks of your forced training pause without totally going insane, and we think that's pretty awesome!" Leo explained.

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd take apart the lair after three days," Mikey announced and rushed to his brother, patting his head gently. "But no, you did well, Raph!"

With an annoyed growl, Raph whipped Mikey's hand away, but there was a small smirk plastered to his face.

"Well, you managed one third, Raph," Donnie said.

"And that calls for a celebration!" Casey chimed in with a big grin. "We have pizza and pizza gyoza, and we are going to play video games in teams. And since you had so much time to practice, you'll have April in your team."

"Hey!" April called out.

"Sorry, Red," Casey said with a shrug. "But you're really bad at video games."

"I'll give you bad, Jones!"

"Bring it on, O'Neil!"

Raph choked a chuckle.

"Come on, April," he said then as he managed the last few steps over to the pit. "Let's teach Casey some manners."

"Alright!" April called out and when Raph had sat down on the couch, they high-fived/threed, and then they took their controllers.

The game was on!


	12. The Watcher

**Chapter 12: The Watcher**

Raph woke up the morning after his surprise party, and for the first time in what felt like ages, it was with a smile.

He pushed away his blanket and sat up, swinging his legs out of bed. He waited a moment to make sure the support splint was intact, then reached for his crutches.

And he did all of this with a smile!

Still smiling, he walked down the corridor on his crutches, something that had never happened before. Even when he had been in a rather good mood considering the circumstances, he had _never_ smiled while walking on his crutches.

And this unusual smile was still plastered to his face when he entered the kitchen and found all his brothers hunched over some blue prints on the kitchen table.

They looked up from their blue prints – and froze.

Raph was _smiling!?_

And not only that! Now he was even humming some random song as he opened a kitchen unit, balancing on his good leg, and took out a bowl. And the smile didn't even fade away when he realized that it was a rather bad idea to make breakfast while balancing on one leg. So he placed the bowl on the kitchen counter and turned to his brothers.

"Hey, Mikey," he addressed the youngest one. "Would you mind helping me with my breakfast?"

Mikey's jaw dropped, and it needed a nudge from Leo to make him snap back into reality.

"S-sure!" Mikey said quickly. "I'm right there, bro!"

And with that he rushed over to Raph, preparing his breakfast for him, while Raph just stood there, leaning on his crutches.

Donnie and Leo shared a look. This was so not Raph to ask for help. And it was even less Raph to do it in such a friendly voice.

And moments later Raph sat down at the kitchen table and Mikey placed a bowl of breakfast cereals in front of him.

"Thank you, Mikey!" Raph said, and the fact that his voice was totally lacking any super-friendliness that could be a hint of sarcasm, made Mikey's jaw drop again, but he managed to snap out of his trance all by himself this time and mumbled a quick "Welcome!" before he joined Donnie and Leo again.

Raph was munching away on his cereals, and his brothers were still staring at him – a fact that, if nothing else, would usually have made Raph turn furious.

But Raph just looked at them after a while.

"You okay?" he asked, and still, there wasn't the slightest bit of anger in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah, sure!"

"'Course!"

"Totally!"

Raph just nodded. But then he grinned at Mikey.

"Sooooooo, April and I gave you and Casey a proper dressing-down yesterday, didn't we?" he said. "Still have to send Casey a text about it." He chuckled.

"Heh, how were we supposed to know that you practiced so much recently, not even April could slow you down in this video game? And she was trying, like, really, really hard!" Mikey replied.

Raph just shrugged. "Practice makes perfect. And April did her best."

He could still remember the smile on April's face when they had beaten Casey and Mikey for the first time although she had managed to kill her character twice. He chuckled at the thought.

When he looked at his brothers they were staring at him with disbelieving looks on their faces.

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiight," Leo said, and then the three of them turned back to the blue prints.

"So what are you up to?" Raph asked, craning his neck to peek at the blue prints. They looked like blue prints of a warehouse to him.

"Another Kraang facility," Leo explained without looking up. "But this one is tricky. I guess we are going to need April's and Casey's help." He was silent for a moment., but then he lifted his head and looked directly at Raph. "And maybe yours."

Raph's eyes widened. "Mine?"

Leo nodded. "Yes, Raph. I think we are going to need your help."

* * *

><p>His task was pretty simple. It consisted of watching all the monitors on Donnie's station in the Shellraiser. They were linked to the building's security system. The good thing was that this time the Kraang were using the original security system. The Kraang didn't have the time to replace the security system in their new facility yet, so it still was human tech, not Kraang-y, and thus even easier for Donnie to hack. He had managed to hack into the security cameras in ten minutes, and now all the screens were showing what was going on inside.<p>

And Raph was here to watch the screens, to look where the Kraang droids exactly were, to let his brothers and friends know if something unexpected popped up.

Raph's eyes darted from monitor to monitor, and he switched between several cameras to get as much info as possible. He was even watching the street with the help of (hacked) street cameras. Donnie hadn't even broken a sweat when he had hacked into them. Piece of cake.

_"__Is everyone on their position?"_ Leo asked over the radio.

Four voices outside and one inside the Shellraiser confirmed.

Raph quickly went through their positions in his head. It was Leo at the back of the building, Mikey and Donnie would go in from above, and Casey and April were covering the front door. Raph was there to watch over them, to make sure nothing went wrong.

And nothing would go wrong, he told himself. Definitely not! He was there and as long as he was watching and could warn them if he had to, nothing, absolutely nothing would go wrong.

_"__Then let's get this party started,"_ Leo said.

Again, five voices confirmed.

And Raph knew his brothers had started moving in. He couldn't see them on the cameras, not even a shadow, they were too good for this. He caught a glimpse of Casey though, before April dragged him back into the shadows, but everything was okay. The Kraang hadn't realized. There hadn't even been a Kraang close to them.

The others were moving in, and he was watching. It was his task, it was what he was supposed to do tonight.

He was the watcher.


	13. The Trap

**Chapter 13: The Trap**

"Casey, April, there are some Kraang coming your way," Raph announced over radio. "They aren't too close, but make sure to stay close to cover."

"Gotcha!" Casey replied.

Raph let his eyes wander over the screens, searching for anything the others must know, any sign that the Kraang had detected them, routes they could use for escape if the worst happened.

There was nothing. The Kraang were acting pretty Kraang-y while his brothers, April, and Casey were moving closer into the building.

He frowned a bit, as one of the Kraang on the screen stopped, but relaxed when the alien continued its path.

But then another movement caught his attention, and his eyes grew wide with shock. Where did this big transporter in front of the new Kraang facility come from, and why was it spilling out Kraang like crazy?

"Guys!" he called out. "You're getting company, lots of company! Get out of there!"

_"__Understood,"_ Leo replied. _"We need an escape rou…"_

That second, the connection broke down.

Raph checked the monitors if he could detect one of his brothers or his friends, but with a terrible buzzing sound they went all dark.

Raph gasped for breath.

"Leo!?" he called out. "Do you copy? Donnie? Casey? ANYONE!"

No reaction.

Raph froze. The sudden stillness sent a shiver up his spine.

An explosion made him jump to his good foot.

This had been close! Whatever was going on out there, it wasn't good. And his brothers, April, and Casey, they definitely were in danger.

But what could he do? Drive the Shellraiser into the building, right through the front wall? What good would that do? He had no idea where the others were right now!

A second explosion made him flinch. He reached for his crutches. He knew he was in no position to fight, but he had to do something.

As fast as possible he made his way to the side door and it opened with its usual chime.

But as soon as the door had opened, his eyes widened as he saw his brothers running towards the Shellraiser, Casey and April right behind him, and dozens of Footbots on their heels.

"What are you doing?" Leo called out to him. "Get back inside!"

And with that he slipped past Raph and into the driver's seat.

Raph tried to back away to give the others room to get inside, but there wasn't enough time. So while Donnie managed to get past him as well, Mikey crashed right into him, knocked him off his feet, and he landed on his carapace with Mikey on top of him. Well, at least he was out of the way now, he realized as April and Casey jumped inside.

The door closed behind them, just in time to hold off some laser shots and Leo stepped on the gas.

There was some rumble of wheels and sounds of something being crashed, and Raph assumed that Leo had run over some of the Kraangbots.

But Raph could still hear laser shots and the annoying Kraang beeping noises, but after a while they were getting more and more silent.

It was only then that Leo took a deep breath.

"Everybody okay?" he asked.

The others replied with confirming murmurs and nods.

Raph looked from one to the other, and yes, they looked fine, a bit exhausted maybe, a bit shocked and disappointed, but not harmed.

Only Mikey's eyes darted around the Shellraiser's interior in a scared, panicked way. He hadn't moved since he had landed on top of Raph and so was still kneeling on Raph's plastron.

Raph hated to see his brother like that, but he wasn't very good in giving comfort, at least not with all the others around them. But he had to do something to make Mikey snap out of his panic.

"Are you comfy, Mikey?" he decided to say.

Mikey turned to him swiftly, first looking into Raph's face kind of surprised, which Raph answered with a frown and a twisted mouth, then Mikey's eyes wandered lower, and he finally seemed to realize that it was Raph he was sitting on.

"Oh, sorry," he called out and jumped to his feet with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his head. "Did I hurt you?" The sheepish grin turned into a concerned look.

"Nah." Raph shrugged it off. "I've been hurt worse in the past weeks." He nodded towards his broken ankle, but then it was his turn to look worried.

The broken ankle… Without it, he could have been out there, without it, he could have helped his brothers.

But a comment of Casey didn't give him time to deepen that thought.

"Now, that didn't go as planned," he said.

"What exactly happened?" Raph asked. "I lost the connection over radio and then the screens went black."

"I'm not sure," Donnie relied. "Everything was going just fine, just like planned, smoothly, and then bamm! All of a sudden, it took a totally different course with a power outage and Kraang attacking us from all directions."

"Yeah, like they were expecting us!" Mikey added.

The others shared a look as realization dawned on them.

"Hey, maybe they _were_ expecting us!" April called out.

Donnie pondered on that, shake his head slowly.

"We thought it was so easy to hack their security system because they didn't have time to install Kraang technology," he said, "but maybe time has never been a factor, maybe…"

"…it's been a trap for us," Leo finished the sentence.

Raph felt a lump build in his throat. A trap. His brothers, his friends, they had walked right into a trap, and none of them had realized, last of all himself. And when tings had made a turn for the worse, he hadn't been able to help them; on the contrary, he had been in their way when they had jumped into the safety of the Shellraiser.

He glared angrily at his broken ankle. And all of this because of this stupid broken ankle! Without it, he could have joined them on their mission, and Donnie would have taken the guard post like he usually did, and Donnie would have known what to do in case of a power outage. He would have made the radio work in no time, or he would have detected them with some crazy new gadget and come for their safety. Donnie would have been able to do _something_.

Raph had just been a burden. Useless. Again.

Still glaring at his ankle, Raph crossed his arms over his plastron, deep, angry wrinkles furrowing his forehead.

Oh, how much he hated this!


	14. Comfort

**Chapter 14: Comfort**

As soon as they arrived back at the lair, Raph was on his way to his room. He knew Leo would like to go through their last mission, their _failed_ mission, the _trap_, going over every detail from what they had done well and what they could improve and so on. And why they had walked right into a trap and why their mission had failed, of course.

And while Raph could get himself to listen when he was in a good mood or at least not as angry as he usually was, he had absolutely no nerve for this tactical blah-blah now that he was hurt and felt useless and had failed and couldn't have helped his brothers one bit.

He had been a burden and he just couldn't get himself to Leo pointing that out now. He knew, he didn't need to hear it as well.

So he left for his room, and Leo let him, the angry frown on Raph's face sign enough for Leo to let him have his way.

As soon as Raph had closed the door behind him, he allowed himself to let out an angry growl, behind gritted teeth, though, so his brothers wouldn't pick it up, but still, he needed to let it out somehow.

It was one way to shout out angrily after someone else had failed, when he could blame Leo, or Donnie, or Mikey, but this one was on him, on him being useless.

The others knew, he was sure about that, but there was no use in drawing any more attention to that fact than already was there.

His arms were shaking slightly, the muscles trembling because he was holding on to the crutches too tightly. It wouldn't even surprise him if he heard them crack right now.

They didn't, of course, so he kept holding on too tightly, and nothing was releasing the tension.

He clenched his jaw until it hurt, but that as well didn't help with the tension, the anger.

He needed to get it out. He needed to hit something!

But what? He couldn't even stand straight without the crutches, and after how badly the encounter with the practice dummy and the office chair had turned out, he could only imagine what would happen if he tried to hit the practice dummy leaning on his crutches or balancing on his good foot.

No, this was no option, he realized as he pressed his jaw in an even thinner line, adding hurting temples to his hurting jaw by doing so.

He needed to do something and fast because otherwise it could be his teeth that cracked.

He glanced over to his bed. This wasn't much, he thought, setting his eyes on the pillows, but it was all he got.

He tossed his crutches away, not caring where they landed, and jumped over to his bed in two jumps on his good leg. The moment he landed on the mattress on his knees, he started hitting the pillows, again and again and again.

His fist hitting the soft pillows wasn't as satisfying as hitting the practice dummy or a real opponent would have been because they gave in and stole away all of the fierceness of his punches, but it was better than nothing.

And sooner than he had thought he was panting for air, and so he stopped and let himself fall back on his carapace, exhausted, tired, but still angry.

If he hadn't know before he would know now that he was in bad shape. A little pillow-hitting wouldn't have worn him out that much just two weeks ago.

Had it only been two weeks? It felt like an eternity.

But at least his exhaustion had gotten the best of him and dampened his anger.

There was a knock at the door, and Raph knew it could only be one person that would dare to see him right now, knowing the state he was in.

"Leave me alone, Leo!" he called out angrily.

Or maybe two persons, Raph corrected, as the door opened and it wasn't Leo who stepped in.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, my son," Splinter said. "It's only me."

"Sensei," Raph said, all the anger gone from his voice, and sat up.

"Do you have a minute?" Splinter asked.

Raph shrugged. "I don't seem to have anything better to do."

Splinter twisted his muzzle at this comment, which made Raph immediately drop his gaze guiltily.

He looked up again when his sensei came to a halt at the bed.

"May I sit down?" Splinter asked.

Raph replied with a nod, and Splinter had a seat next to him.

"Leonardo told me what happened," he began, and Raph couldn't help, but flinch slightly at these words.

There! Now sensei knew as well what a burden he was!

"Oh." Raph dropped his gaze again.

What would that mean for him? Was sensei here to tell him how disappointed he was, to punish him?

"I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Sorry?"

The surprised ring to Splinter's voice made Raph look at his sensei again, checking if he might have misheard, but Splinter seemed truly surprised, his eyes widened.

This, on the other hand, surprised Raph. What was going on here?

"Why are you sorry, my son?" Splinter asked further.

"Why I am sorry?" Raph repeated. Really, was it that hard to get? After all, Leo had told Splinter everything, so why didn't he understand?

"Yes, that's what I asked," the mutant rat said. "So do you mind answering my question?"

"Be…because I'm a burden, sensei," Raph pointed out the all too obvious. "I'm useless. I couldn't help the others when everything went down. I was just standing there, in their way, and I couldn't do anything. I…I…"

A gentle hand on his shoulder shushed him.

"Raphael," Splinter said gently. "You are not useless."

"But I couldn't help them!"

"No?" Splinter asked. "Who was watching over their mission tonight?"

"I was. But…"

"Who told them that the Kraang had arrived?" Splinter interrupted him.

"I did."

"Who would have gone out there and done anything to help them, no matter what?"

"I would. But sensei, it's…"

"It's a sign that you are not useless, Raphael."

"Then…then why are you here?" Raph asked, now totally confused.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Splinter answered his question with a question.

"To tell me that you are disappointed with me," Raph said. "To punish me."

Splinter's eyes widened again. "Why would I be disappointed with you, Raphael?" he asked. "Why would I punish the son who has done everything to help his team tonight?"

Raph couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Then why are you here, sensei?"

"To check on you," Splinter replied. "Your brothers said you were really angry and sad after what had happened."

So sensei was here because he had been worried? Well, that was better than what Raph had feared, of course.

"You did well, my son," Splinter said, giving Raph's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Raph felt how the last of his anger faded. He wasn't useless, he was no burden, he had helped his team. A warm feeling spread through his body, and before long, he returned Splinter's smile.


	15. Back To Normal

**Chapter 15: Back To Normal**

Talking to Splinter and knowing that he wasn't seen as a burden and useless, made Raph feel a lot better.

Maybe he could help his brothers on another mission, watching over them like he had done last night. He was good at this kind of stuff, after all, Raph thought the next morning. Maybe Leo was even planning their next mission already and thinking of making Raph watch over the mission again. Oh, this would be great! The Kraang had tried to trap them last night, so of course they had to get back at them for this. And although Raph could only be watching again – and he for sure would have preferred to hit one or two Kraang himself – he was fine with just watching them getting beat up.

So Raph was in rather high spirits when he entered the kitchen. Donnie and Mikey seemed a bit tired, which was no wonder after the events of last night.

Leo, of course, looked as fresh as a daisy, sipping his tea and reading a comic book, when Raph wished a good morning and had a seat at the table, leaning his crutches against the table next to him.

His brothers returned his greeting and Mikey handed him a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice, but except from that his brothers stuck to their morning routine.

With a frown Raph started eating his breakfast.

If they were going on another mission soon, shouldn't they be talking about it already and shouldn't Leo inform Raph about his task ahead?

Some more moments passed and still no one was talking about any mission plans. Raph shifted a bit in his seat.

Why weren't they talking about their next mission? They couldn't just plan this minutes before they left!

Maybe he should ask Leo, Raph thought.

But blurt it out like that? No. This would look too much as if he depended on them, wanted to go on a mission with them because he had nothing else to do. This was the truth, sure, but he didn't want to point it out.

So he started to munch a mouthful of cereal extra loudly, hoping it would bring him Leo's attention.

It failed, of course.

One problem with having no great table manners was that no one reacted when you actually tried to act as if you had absolutely no table manners.

He swallowed loudly, but still, no reaction.

"Sooooooo," he tried another tactic, "what's the big plan for today, Leo?"

Leo looked up from his comic.

"Training, evening patrol. The usual, I'd say." He shrugged.

"I see," Raph replied. "So when are we going to go after the Kraang again?"

Leo raised a brow. "Not anytime soon, I'm afraid."

"What!?" Raph called out. "But they tried to trap us yesterday!"

"And exactly that's the reason why we aren't going after them too soon. They nearly succeeded, so we better keep a low profile before we make another move against the Kraang again."

"But Leo…"

"I want us to be at our usual strength again before we go after them," Leo clarified. "Otherwise they might be luckier with their trap next time."

_They won't because I'll be there to watch over you. I'll protect you!_ Raph wanted to say, but he bit his tongue.

No matter how much he hated it, Leo had a point there. Even he had to admit that.

"Sorry Raph," Leo said as he got up, placing a calming hand on Raph's shoulder as he walked past him.

"Donnie, Mikey, time for training," he called for his brothers and the three left the room.

Raph kept his eyes pinned on the table.

So this was it. From doing nothing over being a big help he was back to doing nothing. And thus everything was back to normal again. And this normal was a bad normal, a boring normal, a normal Raph hated.

* * *

><p>In default of anything better to do, Raph walked back to his room after breakfast. And now he was lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling.<p>

He could try another pillow-hitting, just to kill time, but then he remembered how quickly he had gotten exhausted the night before, so it wouldn't be much time he'd actually kill.

He could watch TV. But the shows that were on that time of the day usually bored him.

He could play a video game, but he could play all of them blindfolded and with his right arm tied to his back by now. And it didn't look like they would get any new video games soon.

He could call Casey. No, wait, he couldn't. Casey was at school and so was April.

So it looked he was stuck here in his room.

He glanced around the room, looking for some sort of activity until his eyes came to rest on the pile of the fantasy novels April had brought him.

He still had two more books to read, so he could just as well read a bit. The sixth book would be published in three weeks, so why not? As long as he didn't read too much, he should have enough reading material until April brought him the sixth book.

With a nod he sat up and reached for the favored book, shifted a bit until he was comfortable and opened it.

But before he started reading he mentally went over the events of the last books in his head.

The shadow zombies had attacked some villages on the border to the Shadow Woods, kidnapped villagers and turned them into shadow zombies as well, adding them to their army. So it was only a matter of time until they'd make their move.

The sorcerers from the Crystal Mountains had turned down the king, saying that after all the time he had been gone, he had no longer the right to think of himself as the true king.

The king had vowed vengeance for their betrayal, but at the moment his army was too small to even think of attacking sorcerers. So he was on his way to find himself some true allies. One of the false kings had died without leaving an heir. Well, he had a daughter which now was reigning his realm, but the other two kings doubted her hereditary title and were plotting to overthrow her, so they could divide her lands among themselves. But all their conspiracies to murder her had failed so far, and now they were getting ready to take her land with force.

She on the other hand was doing her best to be prepared to fight them back.

So, yes, this was the current status.

With a smile Raph opened the book. He'd only read a few chapters, he told himself, because he still needed to ration his reading material.

* * *

><p>Two days later, he turned the last page of the forth book.<p>

_Crud…_


	16. What To Do

**Chapter 16: What To Do**

When April entered the lair this afternoon, she was greeted by a the sound of wood clacking on stone, all too familiar sound now, and as she looked over to the corridor that led to the brothers' bedrooms she found Raph stopping at the staircase on his crutches and leisurely waving at her.

She lifted her hand and waved back, but then – instead of hopping down the stairs – Raph turned around and walked back down the corridor again.

April raised a brow at this sight.

_Okay, maybe he has forgotten something_, she then told herself and continued her path to the dojo.

She was about to mount the stairs, when she could hear Raph again and stopped. She looked over to him, checking if he needed some help.

But that moment, she remembered that Raph hated to be dry-nursed – like he would call it when someone tried to help him – and so she quickly rummaged around in her messenger bag as if she was looking for something.

That was what his brothers always did – stopping randomly and pretending that they were doing something totally different from watching out for Raph. In reality, they had a close eye on him which Raph probably knew. He wasn't stupid. But as long as his brothers kept their act of doing something totally different up, he generously overlooked it.

She lifted her gaze just in time to watch Raph disappearing down the corridor again.

She blinked a few times, not sure if what she was seeing was correct, but when she heard Raph approaching again, she literally flew up the stairs.

She wasn't sure if she wanted Raph to find her standing around and looking at him. Plus, it was training time after all.

* * *

><p>"Sooooo," April asked when she and the other three turtles were tidying away the training weapons, "what's up with Raph today?"<p>

"What do you mean?" Leo asked.

April, kneeling down with a bokken in hand to put it back on its place on the weapon stand, looked back at Leo over her shoulder.

"You can't tell me that his behavior is normal," she said. "This pacing up and down the corridor on his crutches."

Leo shrugged. "It is since breakfast."

"He's been doing that since breakfast!?" April's eyes widened. "Why?"

"He says he needs to keep moving or he might get too rusty and lazy and out of form," Leo clarified.

"I think he just doesn't want to get fat," Mikey chimed in with a grin.

The youngest turtle grinned a few more moments, then twisted his mouth.

"Something's missing," he mumbled.

In reply, Leo hit him on the back of his head.

"Ouch!" Mikey called out and rubbed his head, but then he grinned again. "Oh, yes, that was it. Thanks, Leo!"

"You're welcome."

April rolled her eyes as she got back to her feet.

"And do you think it is okay that Raph is pacing up and down all day?" she brought up the more pressing topic again.

"Donnie didn't object," Leo replied.

April looked over to said turtle with a frown.

"Don't worry, April," Donnie waved off. "He's probably tired by now and has gone back to sleep. And sleep's the best medicine, we all know that."

When they entered the living area, they saw how Raph reached the staircase, turned around and was on his way down the corridor again.

Donnie cleared his throat.

"Or _maybe_ he's pacing up and down all day," he said.

* * *

><p>"So, what do we do now?" April asked.<p>

"I have no idea," Leo said as he sat down at the kitchen table.

Due to several reasons – the most obvious one that Raph could overhear them – Leo had called for a briefing in the kitchen.

"We could wait until he's totally worn out and bring him to bed," Donnie suggested.

"Did you have a closer look at him?" Leo asked, his brow furrowed. "He's already sweating like a pig and he does NOT seem to stop anytime soon."

Mikey frowned. "Wouldn't he be sweating like a turtle? Ouch!"

He rubbed the back of his head where Leo's hand had hit him and glared at his brother.

"Don't overdo it, bro!" he warned him.

"Sorry," Leo replied with a shrug. "It's kind of addictive."

Mikey's glare deepened.

"Sorry!" Leo said quickly.

"Good." Mikey turned back to the others.

"Can't we ask Splinter for help?" he suggested.

Donnie shook his head. "Not before tomorrow."

"Oh? Why?"

Donnie choked a sigh. "Mikey, sensei has left for his monthly visit to the surface after training."

"Really?"

Leo groaned. "Yes, Mikey, really. Like he has told us this morning."

Mikey looked from Leo to Donnie and back to Leo.

"I…I knew that!" he said then, crossed his arms over his plastron and positioned himself in what should be a self-confident pose. "I just wanted to check if you remembered, too."

"Whatever," Donnie said. "Back to Raph. We need an activity for him where he doesn't have to move too much, where he can sit or lie, but what keeps him busy nonetheless. And TV and video games got eliminated already." He snorted. "We could as well start looking for the Holy Grail."

"We could!?" Mikey called out, his eyes wide with surprise and joy.

"MIKEY!"

"What? I always wanted to go looking for the Holy Grail."

Mikey shot Leo a glance just when his brother had lifted his hand to give Mikey another slap on the back of his head.

"Oh, no need for that," Mikey said matter-of-factly, his face all serious and earnest. "I'll shut up now."

Leo nodded and lowered his hand again.

"What about reading?" Leo asked as he turned back to the April and Donnie. "You brought him some books, April, and he really liked them."

"I know, but I'm afraid I don't own any other books he might like," she said. "The rest of my library is too scientific or not action-heavy enough for his taste."

"So what else could keep him busy?" Leo asked.

"What about computers?" Mikey suggested. "Donnie spends hours in front of his laptop with only his fingers moving."

April's eyes widened as Mikey's words sank in.

But before she could speak up, Donnie blew a raspberry.

"Raph and computers?" he asked scornfully. "Never a good idea."

"No, Donnie," April chimed in. "Mikey has a point there."

"I have? Ha!" Mikey cheered.

Donnie turned to April. "I repeat: Raph and computers, never a good idea," he said in an earnest voice. "Besides, what exactly would keep him busy on a computer? Do we just let him surf the internet?"

"Well, actually, I might have a job for him," April said. "My message board gained a lot more users over the last months, and administrating it got very time-consuming. Maybe Raph could help out as an administrator."

"I could do that!" Donnie replied, and there was a little hurt ring to his voice.

"No, Donnie, you are already super-busy with all your projects," April said.

"But I'll always find time for you…know, computer stuff." He laughed insecurely to camouflage his blooper. "And message boards are computer stuff because I am not speaking about hardware only here, of course. I mean software as well and the internet for sure and…"

If April hadn't placed a hand on his shoulder, he would have gone on like this forever, adding more and more confusing words to emphasize a thought only he could understand, if any. Donnie was one to talk himself into trouble, April knew from experience.

"No, Donnie," she said in a calming voice. "You already have more than enough to do and Raph has too much free time at his hands."

"I agree," Leo chimed in.

"Me too!" Mikey called out.

"See?" April smiled at Donnie. "This is the perfect job for him."

"Except for it's Raph we're talking about," Donnie replied. "He doesn't know anything about computers."

"Then I'll teach him," April explained.

"Teach Raph computers!?" Donnie blew another raspberry. "I wanna see that!"

April narrowed her eyes as a wave of anger rushed through her and her infamous stubbornness kicked in. She took her hand from Donnie's shoulder and folded her arms over her chest.

"You _will_," she said.

Was it just her or had Donnie really trembled a bit at her words?


	17. Laptop

**Laptop**

After hours and hours of pacing up and down the corridor on his crutches, Raph was moving very slowly. His body was covered in sweat, and he was breathing heavily. He stumbled and nearly toppled over, but he gained balance again, not as quickly as the first three times – or had it been four times? He had lost track of counting – but still.

He wouldn't stop, he couldn't stop, he had to do something. And this wasn't useless. He was trying to do something for his form. Not even Splinter could object that. And Splinter wouldn't be back before tomorrow anyway. He had told Raph before he had left. And yes, he had been frowning a bit, telling Raph not to overdo it when he had found Raph doing his special training in the corridor. But how could someone overdo trying to stay in form? Not Raph, for sure.

He had to do something. Period.

He stumbled and regained balance again, although for a moment, it looked like he would fail this time. But instead of getting to move again, he, for the first time in hours, stopped.

He took some deep breaths and waited. And waited. And waited even more.

He furrowed his brow.

Where was it? Where was the satisfying tiredness that usually came over him after training, the tiredness that told him that he had done something and that it was okay to be tired now?

His frown deepened as he waited a little longer. Yes, he was tired, he was very, very tired, exhausted even, but the satisfying feeling, it was missing!

He wanted to scream, he wanted to hurl his crutches to the floor, but he was too exhausted.

A frustrated groan was all he could manage.

"Hi there, Raph!"

Raph looked back over his shoulder and found April standing there, looking at him with a smile. She had something tucked under her arm, but he didn't bother to give it a closer look. He was too exhausted even for that.

"Are you done with your training?" she asked.

Her voice lacked any sarcasm, actually, it sounded pretty nice. April knew when he could handle a joke and when he couldn't, he had to give her that.

He replied with a shrug. "Guess so."

"Good," April said as she closed up to him. "Because I need your help with something."

She placed a hand on his shoulder, not at all put off by his sweat-covered skin. She didn't even wrinkle up her nose although he must be stinking like hell.

Another thing he had to give April – she had never been put off by him or his brothers, although they were mutants and must look weird to human eyes. But this was April after all.

"Okay," he mumbled as he started walking over to his room.

He knew he maybe should take a shower first or at least try to quickly tidy up his room which was a mess, to put it nicely. April might be family, but she also was a girl.

But he was too exhausted for any of this, even too exhausted to really bother, so he just entered his room and slumped down on his bed.

April had a seat next to him, not really noticing the mess around her, and handed Raph what had been tucked under her arm.

He took it and realized it was a laptop.

With a frown he looked back at April.

"A laptop?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

Raph held the laptop out to April. "You know you should go to Donnie when you have problems with technical stuff."

"Yes, but I don't have problems with technical stuff," April said. "This laptop is for you."

"Huh?" Raph's eyes widened. He had a closer look at the laptop, but his brow just furrowed again. "Aaaaaaaaaand what am I supposed to do with this _laptop_?"

"You'll need it for what I need your help with," April explained.

"Now you really have to tell me more about this help. I have _absolutely_ no clue," Raph said.

"Okay, you remember my message board for unusual sightings around New York?"

He nodded.

"Good," April continued. "The thing is that this message board got so many users that I need help to manage it. And this is where you come in."

"Me?" Raph blinked a few times. "You do know that you are not talking to Donnie, right?"

"Yes, Raph, I do," April assured him. "And Donnie has a lot on his plate already. So I thought that maybe you could help me. If you want to, of course."

Raph looked to the ground and twisted his mouth a little, thinking.

"What do I need to do?" he asked when he looked at April again.

"Just look over new posts and make sure they're on topic and no one's breaking the rules. Pretty easy, huh?"

Posts? On topic? Raph was a little lost here.

"Uhm, I guess?" he replied.

"No worries," April said. "We'll start right with the basics. I'll show you everything you need to know. So do you think you can do this?"

Raph thought about it. He just needed to check this message board for posts – April would explain what this exactly was to him later, right? – and he could do it from this laptop. And the most important thing, he would be doing something other than lying around in his bed or pacing up and down the corridor. Something other than useless because April needed his help. So why not? Maybe it was just pure desperation because he had never been a technical kind of guy, but heck, he would be doing _something_!

He shrugged. "Why not?"

April beamed at him.

"Good. And now first things first. If you become an admin on my board, you'll need a nickname. So what do you want your nickname to be?"

Again, Raph's eyes widened. What was it with April addressing the wrong turtle today? Mikey was the naming expert, not him!

"Uhhhhhmmm… What's your nickname?"

"Alpha Omega," April replied. "I thought it has a nice touch to it, being the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet AND my initials. April O'Neil. A. O. Alpha Omega."

"Okay." Raph thought about what his nickname could be, but all he was able to come up with, was RH for Raphael Hamato and this was kind of lame. So what else would make a good nickname?

"A nickname can be literally anything," April replied, obviously realizing that he had some problems figuring out a nickname. "A childhood nickname, your favorite character from a book or movie or maybe just a name you like. There are many, if not to say endless possibilities."

_A character from a book?,_ Raph repeated in his head, immediately thinking about "Realms" and his favorite character there.

"Well, I always kind of liked Arosthar the Black," Raph replied.

"Awesome!" April said. "So how about we make your nickname 'Arosthar'? Or do you want to personalize it even more?"

"Personalize it?" Did April realize what she was asking from him here?

"Yes, make it special and different from the book's character, like changing the name a bit, so that it's not just a name from a book, but something you created."

"Can we give him another color?"

"Sure. Anything you want, Raph." April smiled at him. "This is the internet, the place where you can be anything you want."

Raph thought about it. He had never been a big fan of black. Reminded him too much of the Foot.

"How about 'Arosthar the Red'?"

"Perfect!" April called out. "Now let's get started. First, you need to open the laptop…No, Raph, not with force, like this."


	18. The Most Delicious Coffee

**Chapter 18: The Most Delicious Coffee**

April closed the door of Raph's room behind her and leaned against it, closing her eyes and letting her breath out in a long sigh.

And before long she was sliding to the ground while there were images of the last hours flashing behind her eyes – Raph trying to open the laptop and nearly breaking it apart, Raph hitting the activate button so hard it got jammed for a few moments, Raph moving the cursor and getting really angry when it stopped moving without realizing that his finger had moved past the touchpad, Raph trying to enter his nickname for the registration for April's message board, but hitting more than one key at once because of his big fingers.

But finally, they had managed to register _Arosthar the Red_ and Raph had understood how to look at topics and read the posts on the message board.

But April had forbidden him to write anything today. His task until tomorrow was to get used to the board's interface and learn the rules by heart. Then, they would touch base again and April would give Raph the rights of an admin and then introduce him officially in her board.

Or maybe she should wait another day. Or two. Or maybe a week. She needed to be one-hundred percent certain that Raph wouldn't delete something important by accident before she gave him admin-rights.

His accident rate was rather high at the moment, evidenced by the fact that it had taken him two tries to hit "Logout" and that he had almost blocked his account by entering the wrong password four times. Luckily, April had set the number of allowed login-fails to five beforehand.

She didn't even know why she had done that. Maybe her mental powers had somehow given her a hint. Or maybe Donnie's shocked face when she had told him and the others about her plan had told her that it wouldn't be that easy. Or maybe she was tired of having to activate user accounts again. Since she had started her board, ten users had blocked their accounts and then sent her desperate e-mails that she should please activate their accounts again. So it wasn't just Raph, really.

But still, Raph was … difficult.

To be honest, she had underestimated how little Raph knew about computers and the internet. She could only hope that he was a quick learner or this whole "letting Raph work as an admin to help her"-idea would lead to even more work for her when she not only had to administrate her board, but to correct all the mistakes Raph made as well. And from what she had learned today, that was a _lot_. Who would have thought that someone could look for the login-button for five minutes before finally finding it?

After watching Donnie so many times at his computer, she would never have thought that one of the brothers could have so many problems with typing on a keyboard. Yes, she knew they only had six fingers, and yes, she knew that keyboards weren't made for fingers that big. It was just that with Donnie, typing always looked so _easy_. However, Raph had shown her today how difficult it was to type when your fingers differed from the standard.

And she couldn't help, but admire Donnie for making it look so easy.

She heard Raph inhale sharply from his room and winced as she thought through the possibilities what he could have done wrong this time.

With another sigh she opened her eyes again and found Donnie standing a bit away up the corridor, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his plastron and a big smug grin plastered to his face.

April pressed her mouth into a thin line and glowered at him as she rose to her feet. It took her a little longer than usual and April realized for the first time how much the last hours had exhausted her.

The grin on Donnie's face changed into a pitying smile, but there was still some gloating glistening in his eyes as April walked wearily towards him.

When she had nearly reached him, he simply asked, "Coffee?"

April knew she should be angry, that she should snap at him for his stupid grin, but all she managed to do was say, "Yes please!" in a begging voice that was quite close to a sigh.

* * *

><p>Donnie placed a mug of steaming coffee on the kitchen table in front of April, and she immediately clutched it as if it were a life line, inhaling the heavenly aroma that wafted toward her nose.<p>

She had never thought that coffee could smell _that_ delicious. Coffee smelled delicious, it always did, but _this_ coffee smelled so much more delicious than any coffee she had ever smelled before. She moved the cup to her lips and took a sip of the tasty liquid, and yes, it even tasted better than any coffee she had ever drunk before.

_Best coffee ever!_, she thought.

"Do I need to ask how it went?" Donnie asked with a frown as he sat down next to her.

April shook her head fiercely before she took another sip, closing her eyes as she indulged in the warm feeling the coffee brought to her hands and to her insides.

"That bad, huh?"

April just nodded.

"Well, I tried to warn you…"

The rest of the sentence died in Donnie's throat as April shot him an angry glare.

She did feel better now, so nothing would keep her from giving Donnie a piece of her mind now!

Unfortunately – or fortunately for Donnie – her T-phone rang before she got the chance.

She gave Donnie another warning glare before she looked at the caller ID, rolling her eyes before she answered.

"Yes, Raph?" she asked. "… No, I'm still at the lair. What happened? ... Wait, what? … No, no, no, I am pretty sure you did NOT delete the internet. … I'll be right there! Don't touch _anything_!"

She quickly hung up and got to her feet. She downed the rest of the delicious coffee in a few gulps, burning her tongue in the process, but she didn't care. She needed to brace herself for the task ahead, and so she _needed_ this delicious coffee, no matter what. Slamming the mug onto the table April shot another warning glance at Donnie, wishing she had the time to wipe the smirk from his face, but no, she had to go to Raph now, convince him that he had not deleted the internet and fix whatever he had done this time.


	19. Off-Topic

_After the last chapter, some of you wondered how Raph managed to delete the internet. Of course he did not delete the internet, he just thought he did. That's why April said, that she was pretty sure that he did NOT delete the internet. ;)_

_That's all. On with the story. ^^_

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 19: Off-Topic<span>**

"Okay," Raph said, cracking his knuckles and neck, "let's get this started!"

He opened the laptop, hit the activate button and watched closely as the laptop booted.

A small smile spread across his face. Really, who would have thought that this would be so easy? All he needed to do was wait until the laptop was booted and showed the Hamato crest, then he had to double-click on the little picture of the internet-whatsit, and April's board would show up. She had asked if she should make it his homepage or if he would rather like an empty page and have her board in his favorite links. Having no idea, what April had been talking about, he had simply shrugged and mumbled, "Whatever."

This had been his April-version of "I have no idea what you are talking about", and April had understood and just set up what she had thought would be easiest for him.

The laptop had booted now, and Raph immediately opened the internet-whatsit and shortly after, he was logged in on the message board.

April had introduced him as a new admin a week ago, and he was doing a great job. Being an admin was easy-peasy. Even Mikey could do that. He gave that a little thought. Okay, maybe not. But it still was very easy for _him_.

Ever since April had showed him what he needed to know he hadn't made any mistakes.

Okay, except for this one time when he had accidentally deleted a post. But was it his fault that the "Delete"-button was so easy to hit? Of course not! It was the message board's fault! But that had been it.

Well, except for this other time when he had blocked a user instead of sending him a private message, but again, this hadn't been his, but the message board's fault.

It could have happened to anyone, and he was pretty sure it had happened to April when she had been new to this as well. She just refused to admit it. That was all.

He concentrated his attention on the board again.

_Alright, all you rule-breaking posts, your time on this board is over! Arosthar the Red is here!_

He looked over the new posts. There was nothing rule-breaking so far, just some news on unusual sightings, some of them could be Kraang or mutants, so Raph marked them for April to have a look at later.

But then one post caught his eye. It was nothing special, just a reply to a sighting, but the user also welcomed the new admin and asked if Raph's username had been inspired by "Realms".

_"__Realms"?_ Raph's eyes sparkled with joy. _This guy knows "Realms"?_

He quickly hit "Reply" and told the guy about the story of his username and if he was a fan of "Realms".

The reply to this came within five minutes, and Raph grinned broadly when the guy called himself the biggest "Realms"-fan alive.

_Well, we're going to see about that_, Raph thought as he hit the "Reply"-button again.

And pretty soon, the two of them were posting back and forth about their favorite book series.

This had been going on for about an hour, when suddenly Raph's T-phone rang. He was in the middle of replying to the previous post, still following the train of thought of his counter-argument, when he looked at the caller ID. It was April.

His thumb moved to the button to answer the phone, but then he hesitated. If it was something urgent, April wouldn't call him. She knew he was put out of commission, so she would rather call his brothers. It couldn't be that something had happened to his brothers because they were busy with afternoon training in the dojo.

So whatever it was, it couldn't be that important, or at least, not as important as his argumentation that the shadow zombies could be turned back into humans. If he didn't write it down now, he might forget what he wanted to say. No, April could wait. This post couldn't.

And with that he put down the T-phone again, ignoring its ringing, and picked up typing again.

For the next hour April kept calling him every five minutes or so – she was quite persistent today, wasn't she? –, but after the third call Raph hadn't even checked the caller ID anymore and settled for taking his T-phone's ringing as some sort of background music. And it had worked, because, seriously, this talk about "Realms" was so much more important than talking to April. It was so important, he didn't even bother getting angry at April's annoying behavior.

And then he heard it, footsteps coming down the corridor, but not swift or shuffling like his brothers would usually walk after training, no, whoever it was, was stomping with anger, taking each step with more and more force. Raph knew this way of walking, heck, he had invented this way of walking!

And there was only one person who would walk that way right now.

His door was literally torn open, and there she was – her mouth pressed into a hard line, her eyes burning with fury.

"HAVE YOU TOTALLY LOST IT!?" April yelled at him.

Raph's eyes widened in shock. Sure, he had banked on April being angry, but the sheer volume of her voice had somehow caught him off guard.

"Oh, come on, April," he tried to calm her, "you're that angry because I didn't ans…"

"You think this is about you not answering your phone!?" April interrupted him.

Raph blinked a few times. "Well, isn't it about…?"

"Of course not!" April cut in again. "This is about you acting totally unprofessional!"

Raph creased his forehead. But no matter how hard he tried, he had no idea what April was talking about. "What did I do?"

"What did you _do_!?" April gasped for breath. "_You_ started an off-topic discussion on my board, going on over more than _twenty_ posts! Does the word 'rules' mean anything to you?"

"Uhm…"

"Raphael!" The sudden use of his full name made him flinch a little. "The rules say that the discussion should be kept on-topic, and the rules hold true for admins as well."

Okay, he finally started to understand what this was about.

"Is this about the 'Realms'-posts?"

"Bravo!" April called out, her voice thick with sarcasm. "Give the turtle a prize!"

"But why?" Raph asked confusedly. "We were talking about 'Realms', so it seemed on-topic to me."

"You talked about 'Realms' in a topic about something completely different!"

"Huh?"

"Raph, what does the topic-title say!?"

Raph quickly looked at the laptop. "'Robot seen near office building'", he read out loud. "Ooooooohhhhh…"

He looked back at April, biting his lip.

"Geez, April, I'm sorry," he finally said, passing a hand over his head. "I guess I misunderstood."

This seemed to soothe April. Her tensed posture melted away as she let out a long sigh. She walked over to Raph, her shoulders slouched, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I-is there something I can do?" he asked.

"Well, for a start, you could promise to never do this again," April replied. "And second, you could move these posts to a separate topic in the off-topic-section and then talk with your new friend there. Or continue your talk via PM."

"Will do," Raph replied contritely.

"Good." April nodded.

They looked at each other for a moment.

"Sorry," April said then.

"Huh?"

"I didn't mean to yell at you like that," April went on. "It's just that this board is so important to m…us, with tracking down the Kraang and all, you know. I've always been strict about the rules, and I can't make an exception just because we're friends, and…"

This time, it was Raph's turn to interrupt, and he did by placing a hand on April's shoulder.

"It's okay, April, I get it now," he said. "It won't happen again."

"Thanks, Raph," April replied with a smile.

"You're welcome."

"Well, then I'll leave you to your work," April said, patting his shoulder, rose to her feet and headed for the door. "Bye!"

"Bye, April!"

April hadn't yet closed the door behind her when Raph heard Donnie's voice.

"Coffee?"

"Yes, please!" was April's reply.


	20. Please

**Chapter 20: Please**

When April had officially introduced Raph as a new admin on her board, she had been prepared for a lot of things to happen after this. Bad things, actually. Teaching Raph how to use a laptop and her message board really had showed her a thing or two about Raph and computers.

And of course, this had proved to be true when Raph had accidentally deleted a post and blocked a user in the first week.

Not to mention the off-topic-incident that had happened afterwards. April flinched a little at the thought.

Okay, she had overreacted, she knew that. But neither Raph nor the others knew how important this message board was for her. Before she had started training as a kunoichi the message board had been the only source of support for her friends she had been able to offer, the only she had been able to do to look for her father, for the Kraang, for other mutants. It still was a very important source of help. Maybe it would always be.

So there was that. But still, she had overreacted.

At first, the plan had been to just call Raph and tell him about this whole off-topic-thing, but he hadn't picked up, no matter how often she had tried to reach him, and as time had passed, she had gotten angry, remembering how hard teaching Raph had been, how hard it had been to restore the deleted post, how many apologies she had sent the user who had accidentally been blocked. And then Raph had gone on and on with his off-topic discussion without picking up his phone, and she had exploded.

Literally.

So much even Raph hadn't yelled back at her or gotten angry himself.

Actually, he had been rather comprehensible. So un-Raph, really.

She blamed his current state of health for it.

And ever since that off-topic incident, Raph hadn't made any new mistakes, and she started to feel more secure about Raph as an admin. Four days had passed and he was acting like a flagship-admin. She could only hope this would last and wouldn't turn out to be a phase.

Her T-phone rang and April pulled it out of her messenger bag, checking the caller ID.

_Speaking of the devil…uhm…turtle_, she thought as she picked up.

"Hi Raph, what's up?"

_"__Not much,"_ he replied. _"I just wanted to know if you'll come to the lair later today."_

"I planned on coming over for a visit tomorrow."

_"__Oh, so you can't come today?"_

April narrowed her eyes. Something was wrong here.

"Why?" she asked, and she had to give it to herself that she didn't add an angry or annoyed, "_What did you do this time?"_

_"__Well, uhm, I maybe, just maybe need your help with something,"_ Raph admitted.

April choked a sigh.

"I'm on my way."

_"__Thanks, April, you're the best!"_

"I know."

* * *

><p>"Okay, what is so important that it can't wait 'til tomorrow, Raph?" April asked half an hour later while opening the door to Raph's room.<p>

Raph was just sitting on his bed, his laptop on his knees and his broken ankle propped up on a cushion, but the moment he set eyes on her, the corners of his mouth rose and he was showing April the biggest, most innocent grin she had ever seen.

April squeezed her eyes closed and took a deep breath.

"Don't tell me you deleted the internet for real this time," she said in an edgy voice.

"What? No!" Raph replied.

This made April open her eyes again.

"Then what's going on?" she asked, some of the tension fading away, because really, the internet was still there. It couldn't be that bad then, right? Or could it be that he had deleted her message board?! She tensed up again.

"Well, you see…uhm...," Raph stammered, fumbling with his fingers and avoiding April's eyes.

_Then it has to be the message board!_ April thought and drew a sharp breath.

"Spit it out, Raph!" she called out.

Raph took a deep breath. "Darius informed me that the new 'Realms'-book is going to be released earlier in one special bookshop here in New York."

April released the breath she had been holding in one long sigh.

"Okay," she said. "And what does this have to do with me?"

"Well, you are a 'Realms' fan, too, so I thought you might want to know," Raph replied.

April shrugged. "True, but I don't mind waiting a little longer."

"Oh…uhm…okay." Raph dropped his eyes.

"What's the matter?" April asked. "You have one more book left to read, so you wouldn't mind either, right?"

"Uh, _that_," Raph replied. "Actually, I finished the fifth book this morning."

"I see", April said. Didn't look like she was going to get of this. She sighed. "So when's the new book released?"

"Tonight," Raph answered. "At midnight."

And suddenly it hit April why this whole thing couldn't have waited until tomorrow, but she still didn't get why he couldn't have told her over the phone.

"And people are already queuing up in front of the bookstore," Raph continued.

"But it's only early afternoon!"

"I know! But it's limited to one hundred books, and this has only been announced an hour ago. I spoke with Casey already. He refused to queue up or take turns with you, but he'll bring you food and take your place if you need to go to the bathroom, but he says he is not a 'Realms'-fan, so this is the most he can do, and…"

"Wait, wait, wait!" April interrupted. "You want me to queue up for several hours to buy a book?"

"Well…uhm…I guess…"

"Raph!"

"April, please!"

And then it happened. Raph looked April in the eyes, tilted his head a little, and then he gave her the cutest puppy dog eyes April had ever seen in her life. And having to deal with Mikey on a daily basis, this really meant something.

She wouldn't have thought that Raph, out of all four turtles, would be able to look that cute, but he did. She knew he was doing this out of sheer desperation. He would have thought of something else if he hadn't broken his ankle.

Okay, now that she thought of it, he would never have read "Realms" if he hadn't broken his ankle and her bringing him the first "Realms"-book to kill time. So in a way, she was responsible because she had introduced him to this intriguing world of knights and sorcerers and shadow zombies, but still, she didn't want to queue up for hours!

She just didn't want to. And she wouldn't. No, she wouldn't!

Raph tilted his head a little more to the side. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase?"

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes laterm April had lined up in front of the bookstore.<p>

_Oh, Raph, you soooooo owe me!_


	21. Cold Breeze

**Chapter 21: Cold Breeze**

"Hey, what's up, Red?" Casey asked in a cheerful voice.

April lifted her eyes from her T-phone and gave Casey a little glare.

"As if you didn't know," she said coldly.

"Okay, well…uhm… I do," Casey replied, chuckling uneasily.

He handed April a plastic bag, and while she was examining its contents, he had a closer look at the people lined up in front of the bookstore. They looked pretty normal to him, although some of them were wearing costumes of what must be their favorite characters, he presumed. He could make out a knight further ahead in the line and someone else wearing a long dark blue robe.

But who was he to judge, really? He was running around the city in his vigilante outfit nearly every night.

He turned back to April who was stuffing the plastic bag into her messenger bag.

"Got everything you need?" Casey asked.

"Yep," April replied shortly.

"Whoa, don't talk so much, Red!" Casey called out in an attempt to cheer her up. "I barely get a word in edgewise!"

The glare in April's eyes signaled that obviously, this wasn't a time for jokes.

"Casey, I've been standing here for two hours now. It is hot; the sun's beating down like crazy. I am _not_ in the mood to talk!" April snapped.

Casey retreated a step, just in case.

"B-but you gotta see the bright side," Casey stammered, trying to save what could be saved. "You're fan of these books, too, and now you get the newest one earlier, and that's a good thing, right?"

Another warning look from her made him dump all the other pros he had made up in his head.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" he asked quickly. "Do you want some coffee?"

The hard look on April's face softened a bit at the mention of coffee.

"Yes," she said. "And maybe some sunscreen. Don't want to risk sunburn for a _book_."

Some people turned to them, giving them deadly looks that made Casey flinch internally, but April didn't seem to care. She continued as if nothing had happened. "Oh, and maybe an umbrella, too."

Casey raised his eyes to the sky. It was cloudless, and he frowned as he turned back to April.

"Um, Red, it doesn't look like it's gonna…"

"As a shelter from the sun, you dummy!"

"Oh, okay."

* * *

><p>April couldn't remember the last time Casey had been so quick about organizing something when it didn't come to kicking someone's butt, but he managed to get a paper cup of coffee, a tube of sunscreen, and a telescopic umbrella in record-breaking ten minutes.<p>

Still panting for air he held out the supplies to April.

She showed him a bored, rather underwhelmed face as she grasped the coffee, taking her time as she let the smell tickle her nose before she took a small sip.

Not even close to the deliciousness of Donnie's coffee, she had to confess, but still, coffee!

She let the warm liquid run down her throat, and it seemed to soothe the frustration a bit.

She knew it wasn't Casey's fault she would be waiting here for hours to come. No, it was Raph's fault, mostly. Okay, and _maybe_ she was the tiniest bit to blame herself, but wasn't she already punished enough by this task, really!?

No, someone had to pay for it, and since Raph was out of reach, it unfortunately had to be Casey.

She felt a little sorry for taking it out on Casey. That really wasn't what she usually did. But when she thought about it a bit more closely, she remembered that in a way, it was Casey's fault, too, because he had refused to take turns waiting in the line for the new book with her.

And this washed the little bit of regret away completely.

She could see from the corner of her eye how Casey was standing there, still holding out the umbrella and the sunscreen to her and shifting uneasily when April didn't accept the two remaining things.

April smiled smugly. She didn't intend on releasing him too soon, and so she let a few more moments pass before she took another sip of coffee.

Then she felt it, something like a cold breeze that brushed over her and made her skin crawl. It was over in a split second, and April frowned.

"Red, you okay?" Casey asked.

"Yes…," April mumbled.

"You sure?"

April squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a quick shake in an attempt to get rid of the aftermaths of this odd breeze. Her skin still felt a little cold, forming a huge contrast to the warm feeling the coffee had left in her stomach.

When she opened her eyes again, she realized that all the other people around her were sweating, some even complaining about the heat. Her frown deepened. How was this even possible? Hadn't they felt this breeze her skin was still tingling a bit from? Shouldn't they say something about how refreshing it had been?

"April?" Casey asked again, his voice a bit more pressing.

"I'm fine," April replied. Whatever it had been, it was gone now, so why bother? "I guess the sun was just playing a little trick on me."

Really, she had been standing around here for hours now, starving for a little relief. So was it surprising that she was wishing for some cool air so much, she actually persuaded herself of a cold breeze? Absolutely not!

"Really?" Casey asked further.

"Really," April replied, giving a little smile.

This obviously convinced him. "Okay then."

It was only now that April realized that he was still holding out the umbrella and the sunscreen to her. So she finally drowned the last of her coffee, handing the empty cup back to Casey and then took umbrella and sunscreen in her hands.

Casey responded with a big relieved grin.

"So you're gonna be okay now?" he asked.

April nodded.

"Good, then I'll go see Raph now," Casey announced.

"Tell him I hate him", April said.

"I will," Casey replied with a grin, casually waved at her and left.

April watched him go, wishing she could join him. But no, she had to get this book for Raph! Oh, he so owed her! If only she could let her frustration out on him as she had done on Casey. It would make things so much easier for her, she was sure about that.

But Raph was unreachable. Unfortunately, she thought, as she put the tube into her messenger bag, unless…

She froze for a moment as realization dawned on her.

And the next moment a mischievous grin appeared on her face as she put up the umbrella to block away the unforgiving sun and took out her T-phone.

Still grinning she started typing away on her phone, chuckling slightly under her breath, and the devilish look on her face strengthened.


	22. Text Messages

**Chapter 22: Text Messages**

"Hey man!" Casey greeted Raph as he entered his room. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Lying around, not kicking butt, the usual," Raph replied with a shrug. "What's new?"

Casey noticed immediately that Raph's voice didn't sound angry or annoyed. Which was a relief, really.

"Just paid April a visit," he replied. "She hates you, you know?"

"I do!"

Casey frowned. Was it just him or had there been some desperate ring to Raph's voice.

"Well, she's just bored, I think," Casey said.

"I…," Raph began, but before he could finish the sentence, his T-phone beeped and Raph literally made a dive for it, tapping away like crazy, before he turned back to Casey.

"I know that, too," he said then.

"You should have seen how angry she was," Casey told him. "Really scary!"

"An…"

Again, Raph's T-phone beeped, and again he couldn't reply to that text message fast enough.

Casey twisted his mouth. Raph giving preference to his T-phone instead of his best friend? Weird!

Casey just opened his mouth to say something when it happened again.

And when Raph turned back to him this time, Casey was a bit annoyed.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Raph sighed. "April."

"Huh?"

"Her revenge, actually."

Casey blinked a few times. "What?"

"Look," Raph said and showed Casey his T-phone, scrolling through his recent communication with April.

_16:03  
>Listen, Raph, I'm going to send you several text messages as long as I have to wait here. You have to reply within 5 minutes, or I swear I'll leave this line right away. Got it?<em>

16:05  
>Yes<p>

_16:08  
>Really?<em>

16:10  
>Raelly.<p>

_16:13  
>Sure?<em>

16:14  
>Sure!<p>

_16:18  
>You do know I'm still standing in this line of people to get this book for you, and it's still boring?<em>

16:22  
>Sory<p>

_16:28  
>That was close. <em>

16:30  
>Iknow<p>

_16:38  
>5 minutes, remember?<em>

16:40  
>I do.<p>

_16:42  
>Good.<em>

16:44  
>thx<p>

Just when Casey was done reading, another text message arrived, and Raph replied right away.

"That's tough, man," Casey said.

But on the inside he had to laugh. This was sooooo April! Of course, she couldn't have let Raph off the hook.

"Tell me about it!" Raph replied. "I've needed to go to the bathroom for half an hour now, but I'm too afraid I won't be able to reply in time."

Okay, that was too funny now, especially when Casey remembered that just a little while ago, he had been the target of April's anger.

But he somehow managed to fight back the laughter by biting down his lip like really, really hard.

"But I think I'll give it a try now," Raph announced.

He tucked the T-phone into his belt, reached for his crutches and got up.

But before he could make the first step, there was another beep, and Raph quickly fumbled his phone out, but he did this so hectically, it slipped from his hand and landed on the bed.

Raph jumped after it, landing flat on his plastron. This made him breathe in through his teeth, something Casey could only explain with Raph's current state of bathroom-need.

And now Casey couldn't hold back any longer and burst into laughter.

* * *

><p>With a smug grin April tucked her T-phone away. It was nearly midnight and she had sent Raph a hundred or so text messages, and yes, he had always replied within five minutes.<p>

She felt so much better now after her little revenge. And this whole "Realms"-mission was going to be over soon anyway.

She looked over to the door of the bookstore as it was opened slowly, and she couldn't help, but smile when the line of people started moving forward.

Suddenly she felt it again. The cold breeze, brushing over her skin. She shivered slightly.

Now, this was strange. She looked around herself. It was dark and a cold breeze wouldn't be so strange, but what was, was the fact that again, no one else seemed to have felt the breeze. No one else was shivering, and since it was night, she couldn't blame it on the sun any longer.

Another cold breeze brushed over her, and this time, it felt like it had come from the direction of the bookstore.

But before she could deepen this thought, the line moved forward again. And then the breeze was gone.

When fifteen minutes later she entered the bookstore, she looked over the interior. It looked like a normal bookstore to her, but she still remembered the strange cold breeze. So she reached for one of the books at a nearby table. With a frown, she opened it, and even was surprised when there were letters on the pages. She somehow had expected to find them blank.

Her frown deepened as she put the book back.

Shouldn't she be relieved now? But something still felt odd. But again, she didn't have time to think this through as she was the next in line to go to the counter, pick up one of the provided "Realms"-books there and pay it.

* * *

><p>She smiled when she left the bookstore again. "Realms"-mission completed!<p>

And with this thought she started her way to the nearest subway station.

But when she passed the side street next to the bookstore, she shivered again as another cold breeze reached her. She stopped, frowning deeply.

"Good evening to thee, my lady," a voice said, and as April had a closer look she found a small figure standing there, wearing a long cloak, its face hidden by a hood.

"Wouldeth the lady doeth me the honor of joining me for a feast this night?" the figure asked, and April realized that it had a male voice.

"A feast?" April asked.

"Aye, my lady," the figure replied. "A feast in celebration of this special night where we finally cometh to know what is going to happeneth to the lost king and his realms."

The figure held out a piece of paper to her.

April thought about it. This guy was pretty small. If he thought of attacking her, she should be able to handle him. Also, he was standing at the beginning of the street, so even if someone was waiting in there, she should be able to flee before this someone could reach her. _If _she was careful. And she was a kunoichi. Being careful was part of that.

Her senses highly alert, she moved closer and took the piece of paper.

She read what was written on it. It said something about a "Realms"-event tonight and promised to be unforgettable.

April thought about it. On the one hand, she had had more than enough "Realms" for one day. But on the other hand, Raph would totally like it, no, _love_ it. Plus, maybe if she took some pictures, it would keep Raph busy for a while.

"Okay, I'll be there," April said.

The figure bowed. "A thousand thanks, my lady!"

"You're welcome," she replied.

When she set into motion again, headed for the address written on the paper, she felt another cold breeze, but this time, she didn't think too much about it. She was too deeply in thought about what this event would be like and how Raph would react when she'd tell him about it.


	23. The Fan Event

**Chapter 23: The Fan Event**

April looked down at the invitation she had gotten from this strange "Realms" fan earlier that night.

She set her eyes on the warehouse in front of her. It looked pretty empty and not at all "Realms"-ish. That had been the reason she had decided to double-check. But the address was correct, so it had to be this warehouse.

_Okay, this is it_, she thought and put the invitation away, and with a determined nod she walked over to the entrance.

She saw a movement behind her and quickly turned around. Someone in a knight's costume was headed for the entrance as well. April gave a little smile and continued her path.

Yes, she definitely was in the right place here, when knights were heading for the warehouse as well.

And as soon as she had entered the warehouse, she was one-hundred percent sure – or even more, because there were at least twenty other people standing around there and nearly all of them were wearing long robes or armor, and April couldn't help, but feel a bit out of place in her everyday clothes.

But how should she have known that she would be going to a big costume party today?

She looked around the warehouse. Except for the people in costumes it looked pretty normal to her. There were no decorations, not even a banner that said that this was a "Realms"-fan event.

She frowned.

"Didn't the invitation say something about an unforgettable event?" someone whispered behind her.

"Yeah," she heard the reply. "Looks pretty boring to me."

This was the moment when April felt another cold breeze, and this time it didn't just brush over her, no, the cold went right into her body and stayed in her stomach. She flinched a bit at the uneasy feeling, but it all became secondary when there suddenly was a movement in front of the group, and April's eyes widened when she saw a bird-like creature hovering in the air, wearing a hooded cape and holding some sort of a walking stick with a stone or crystal on top.

The creature's appearance rang a bell with April. It somehow looked familiar, although she was pretty sure she had never seen this creature before.

But then it spoke up, and April was pretty sure where she knew this creature from. It was the voice of the guy who had given her the invitation earlier that night.

"Welcome, my valued guests!" he said, and his voice was echoing through the warehouse so loudly, April wondered if there was a sound system installed.

"As you knoweth," the guy continued, "we have gathered here today to celebrate this special night where we cometh to know what is going to happeneth to the lost king and his realms. And to celebrate this, I inviteth you to followeth me to the REALMS!"

He raised his stick and the crystal started glowing with a blue-greenish light, turning brighter and brighter, and all of a sudden, the light shot out of the crystal like a shockwave, and April had to close her eyes because of the blinding brightness.

And when she opened her eyes again moments later and looked around her, all she could do was gasp.

* * *

><p>Casey looked back over his shoulder.<p>

Yes, Raph was still pacing up and down the living area behind the pit. Well, as much as pacing was possible with his crutches.

Casey let himself sink deeper into the couch and turned his attention back to the TV.

"She's late, isn't she?" Raph asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

"No, she's not," Casey replied for what felt like the hundredth time.

Five minutes after midnight, Raph hadn't been able to stay in his room any longer and had insisted that he and Casey moved to the living area and watched some TV – although it hadn't been much watching from Raph's side. He hadn't even sat down and instead had immediately started this pacing up and down-routine.

Casey had looked up a nice action movie, but with all Raph's moving around and the sound of the crutches on the floor – not to mention the ongoing asking about April being late – hadn't given him much chance to enjoy the movie.

But he choked a frustrated sigh when he heard Raph take a breath, bracing himself for another "She's late, isn't she?"-question, but the words that left Raph's mouth were totally different.

"C-can you call her?" he mumbled almost.

"What?" Casey turned around in his seat to look at Raph.

Raph stopped and looked at him, biting down his lip.

"It's been forty minutes, Casey," he said. "Please call her."

Casey's eyes widened and he was so surprised that he forgot to retort why Raph wasn't calling April himself, so he just obeyed.

When the phone was ringing and he was waiting for April to pick up, Casey wondered if Raph was worried about April or about the book and settled for a bit of both.

When the call went to voice mail, he hung up.

"Didn't answer," he said with an apologetic look over to Raph. "I'll try again later."

Raph just nodded, taking up his pacing again.

Casey turned back to the TV, but again he couldn't concentrate on the movie. Only this time, it had less to do with Raph and more with the fact that April _always_ answered her phone.

* * *

><p>April heard the ringtone of her T-phone. She could hear it over the dragon's angry growl. she could hear it over the blood pulsating in her ears, over her hammering heart. Thing was, she couldn't get it, not with a dragon right on her heels.<p>

She took a sharp turn and ducked behind one of these ancient looking pillars, hoping that maybe now she could get the call.

She started fumbling for her T-phone in her messenger bag, but the moment, her fingers touched it, a wave of fire hit the ground right to her left.

She jumped to her feet and took flight again.

The T-phone finally stopped ringing, and April felt a bit guilty that she hadn't been able to answer the call. She _always_ answered. But hey, dragons made a pretty good, although very illogical excuse.

And she'd call back later anyway.


	24. Something Wrong

**Chapter 24: Something Wrong**

April crawled over to a big statue of a nobleman. She could still hear the dragon hiss and growl in search of his prey, but so far, the mythological beast hasn't been lucky in catching any of the guests.

She let out a silent sigh of relief when she reached the statue. She dug into her messenger bag and retrieved her T-phone.

Calling back really was no option any longer. Speaking up would give her location away. But she could at least text the others and ask them for help, because heck, she needed help here!

She scrolled through her missed calls. There were three from Casey by now, and April couldn't help, but feel a pang of guilt. She just hoped that Casey would realize that something was wrong and that she wasn't just playing hard to get – Casey sometimes got the weirdest ideas.

She was about to type her text message, when she thought that maybe she should set her phone's volume on mute first. But at that exact momentm the gadget came to life and her familiar ringtone echoed through the hall.

_Damn it_, April thought.

She wanted to toss her T-phone into her bag again when she heard a familiar hiss, and she could just jump to the side as a wave of fire hit the ground right where she had been sitting just a split-second ago.

The T-phone slipped from her hands and skidded over the floor. She wanted to run after it, but another wave of fire made her change her direction.

Ducking behind a pillar, she hoped she'd be safe for a moment.

Some other guests had thought they could make a run for the exit while the dragon was sending fire her way, but just when they had started moving, the dragon shifted his attention back to them.

Luckily, they managed to dodge the attack.

But while the dragon was busy with the other guests, it gave April a chance to finally really look at him.

She let her eyes wander over its large body, its green-blue-ish scales, its bat-like wings. This creature looked exactly how April had imagined the dragon from the second "Realms"-book, the one that had been guarding the old castle.

It looked like her imagination had hit the nail right on the head.

But suddenly, there was this cold breeze again, and for a second, the dragon was gone, completely gone, like not even there. Also, the ancient pillars, the statues and the old furniture, it all was gone for a second, and April found herself in the warehouse again.

She jumped a little in surprise and blinked, and after the blink, everything was back to normal again. Well, the freaky, "Realms"-ish, not at all normal kind of normal.

With a frown she ducked behind the pillar again.

That was strange, even stranger than being dragged into the world of a book.

What the heck was going on here?

But before she could deepen this thought, she heard a scream and when she looked back at the dragon, she realized that one of the guests – a teenage girl in a long robe – had fallen over, probably when she had run for cover, and now the dragon was moving closer to her with a deep, warning growl.

And before April really knew what she was doing, she had left her cover and was running over to the dragon.

* * *

><p>Raph still had not given up on pacing up and down the room, although, due to exhaustion, he moved a lot slower now, but he refused to sit down. He couldn't sit down. Casey had called April several times now, and she still wasn't answering her phone.<p>

Okay, maybe she was angry because she had had to line up for hours to buy the latest "Realms"-book for him and this was her revenge. Maybe she had just gone right home and was sleeping peacefully in her bed now. But somehow, Raph couldn't believe it.

Besides, hadn't her text-bombardment been punishment enough?

Raph twisted his mouth as he thought about this.

Well, it was about April here, so probably not.

But still, going home without saying something – but hopefully _with_ the book – just wasn't like her, all revenge aside.

Raph looked over to Casey.

Casey's eyes were glued to the TV, but he still had his phone in his hand, and Raph realized that Casey's knuckles were white from holding the gadget so tightly. Also, Casey's whole body seemed tensed.

So Casey was worrying about April, too. And he too knew that something was wrong.

Raph stopped and looked directly at Casey.

The teenage boy seemed to feel his gaze and looked back at him over his shoulder.

Raph frowned. "I think something's wrong."

"Oh no, dude, everything's just f…"

"Don't say 'fine' or I swear I'll hit you with my crutches!"

The word died in Casey's throat and he just looked at Raph.

"We both know something's wrong, right?" Raph asked.

For a second, Casey didn't do anything, but then he nodded.

"Good," Raph said. "I mean, not good!" he quickly corrected himself. "We're lucky that Donnie's working late hours tonight."

And with that Raph set into motion again.

Casey got up and followed his friend to Donnie's lab.

* * *

><p>When they entered the lab, they found Donnie at his work desk, bent over something Raph hadn't even the slightest idea what it could be. And he didn't want to know either.<p>

Donnie had his shell turned to them and didn't show any sign he had even realized they were there.

Raph cleared his throat which made Donnie jump.

With a confused look on his face, Donnie turned around and looked at them.

"Wh- … oh, it's you!" But then it seemed to dawn on him that it was Casey _and_ Raph in his lab in the middle of the night.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, there's this small possibility that maybe, just maybe, April is in trouble," Raph said.

It was one thing to ask Donnie for help and it was another thing to tell him to do something, but it was something _completely_ different if you had to tell him that something could have happened to April. That was a topic even Raph sometimes had issues to touch – especially when he couldn't just pound Donnie when he lost his temper.

"What!?" Donnie called out. "I thought she was getting this stupid book for you!"

"She was or maybe she still is, we haven't heard from her in a while and she doesn't answer her phone when we call her," Raph replied. "And 'Realms' is not stupid."

"April _always_ answers her phone!"

"Well, we know, but…"

Raph couldn't finish this sentence because Donnie marched over to Casey, stopped and glared down at him, taking advantage of the fact that he was taller than him.

"You were supposed to be looking after her, right, Jones? Brought her food and so, right?" Donnie said. "Don't tell me you _lost_ her! _Again!_"

"I didn't lose her!" Casey replied, but backed away from Donnie a bit. "She was pretty fine last time I checked on her."

"No one lost anyone here," Raph said, lifted one crutch and used it as a barrier between Casey and Donnie. "And probably everything is just fine. But could you track her phone or something, Donnie? Just to be sure, okay?"

Donnie turned to Raph, and Raph gave him a calming smile. Raph's smiles never really looked calming, he just inched the corners of his mouth up, but it seemed to work, because Donnie just nodded and went to his laptop.

Raph brought down his crutch again. When he looked at Casey, the teenage boy mouthed a thank-you.

Raph nodded in reply, and then they walked over to Donnie who was already typing away on his computer.


	25. The End - Or Maybe Not

_Here we go, my lovely readers, this is the last chapter of "Sidelined". I want to thank you all for the support. This chapter turned out a bit longer than the other chapters. Enjoy! ^^_

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 25: The End – Or Maybe Not<span>**

While running in the dragon's direction, April quickly pulled out her tessen and flicked it open. She was sure that the tessen wouldn't do much damage to the dragon, probably not even scratch it, but maybe it could distract the beast from the girl.

She aimed for the dragon's snout and threw her weapon.

The dragon somehow saw it coming the last moment and pulled his head back. The tessen hit the wall behind it and landed on the floor with a clattering sound.

The dragon looked at it for a moment, and April used the time to reach the girl and pull her behind a pillar.

The girl was breathing heavily, but as the dragon started moving again, growling loudly as he realized that its prey was gone, she covered her mouth with one hand to muffle her breathing.

The beast moved over to another pillar, and April let out the breath she had been holding.

The girl let out a silent whimper.

April placed her hand on her shoulder, giving it a sympathetic squeeze.

"It's okay," she whispered.

"We are never going to make it!" the girl wept.

"Of course, we are!" April replied.

"No!" the girl said. "It's so fast and deadly, it's everywhere! Whenever I try to make a move for the door, it's there, its red scales and its white teeth shimmering in the moonlight."

April's eyes widened. "Red scales?"

In the book, the dragon had been described as green-blue-ish, and last time she had checked, the dragon's scales had _not_ been red.

"Yes," the girl said. "I always imagine dragons to be red, red as blood." The girl inhaled sharply. "And I was right! Dragons are red!"

"No, they're not," April said and removed her hand from the girl's shoulder.

She stood up and straightened herself, taking a deep breath.

"What are you doing?" the girl whispered, and a muffled cry followed, as April stepped out in the open.

There was no cover, nothing to hide her from the dragon. She wasn't even trying to move when the dragon detected her and growled.

She took a deep breath and approached the beast.

The dragon swayed its head, then growled again, and moved into her direction.

The dragon took a deep breath and opened its snout.

April knew what was going to follow and she braced herself.

She stopped and inhaled sharply as a wave of fire was coming her way.

Oh, she could only hope she was right.

* * *

><p>Raph was shifting uneasily in his seat and wanted to shout at Leo that the gas pedal wasn't there for decoration reasons only, but he bit down his tongue.<p>

It had been hard enough to talk Leo into taking him with them in the Shellraiser after Donnie had located April's T-phone in some abandoned industrial area.

They had immediately decided to check if she was alright – which was synonymous to rescuing her.

And now they were racing through the streets of New York, although it felt to Raph as if they were going in slow-motion.

Had the Shellraiser always been that slow?! When this was over he needed to tell Donnie that he should reactivate this stupid rocket he had invented. This thing should have brought them to April rather fast if it hadn't killed them before that.

He took a deep, calming breath. Casey was looking over to him from the floor where he was sitting. He had insisted on coming with them, too, and maybe it wouldn't have been so easy for Raph to persuade Leo to let him come with them if Casey hadn't suggested he would make sure Raph stayed in the Shellraiser.

This was unusual for Casey. He'd never miss a fight and, more importantly, he'd never miss a chance to rescue April.

Raph could only guess that the reason for this was that Casey still felt guilty because Raph had gotten hurt. But Raph didn't really care. He had more important things to do – like biting down his tongue.

When the Shellraiser took another turn, Raph was about to hit something, like, really, really hard, but he just bit down his lip harder, expecting to taste blood any moment.

But when Raph thought he couldn't take this any longer without hitting Mikey just for being Mikey, the Shellraiser came to a halt with squeaking brakes.

* * *

><p>In the last moment April had covered her face with her hands, although she had known all along that it wouldn't help anything. And so she was standing there, her hands before her eyes, but the fire was gone, and she was still there. Unburnt.<p>

Which shouldn't be the case if there really had been fire.

She removed her hands from her face and looked around.

The dragon was looking at her, grim and dangerous, but it couldn't fool her any longer.

She had been bathed in a wave of fire and she was still there.

She let out a triumphant cry.

Suddenly, the medieval hall was fading away, as was the dragon, and her surroundings turned into an old warehouse, the same warehouse she had entered earlier that evening.

She heard gasps and confused mumbling from behind her, and when she looked over her shoulder she saw how the "Realms"-fans started to leave their covers behind crates and pieces of junk.

"Aw man!" April heard an angry voice and she turned back to find the bird-like creature standing not far away from her, stamping his peg leg – she hadn't even realized he had a peg leg before.

"You weren't supposed to find out that quickly!" the creature called out.

April stepped closer to him and when the creature realized her, he moved backwards.

But before she could say anything, a few fans ran past her and over to the creature.

"Gosh, that was awesome!" one of them called out.

"Yeah! How did you do it? Camera? Special effects? It seemed so real!" another joined in.

"I really thought that dragon would eat me! The sound effects! Brilliant!"

April blinked a few times. Camera? Special effects? No, this hadn't been special effects. She wasn't sure what it had been, but it had felt too real for too long to just have been special effects.

"And I love how you made up your own 'Realms'-character! Very innovative!"

"What's your name? Do you want to join us at the fantasy-café?"

The creature seemed to be just as surprised as she was.

But then the confused look on his face changed, and his beak twisted into a big grin. Rather quickly, the grin was replaced by a serious look, and he bowed.

"I go by the name of Sir Malachi," he introduced himself, and everything clicked together in April's brain.

Sir Malachi, the sparrow mutant. The guys had told her about him. He could summon illusions and was a big "Mazes and Mutants"-fan. So him being a "Realms"-fan as well wasn't such a big surprise.

April shook her head lightly with an amused grin. Why hadn't she realized sooner?

For a moment she thought of going over there and telling Sir Malachi what she thought of being tricked in such a terrible way, but then she remembered how Mikey had told her how lonely Sir Malachi had been. And now he was standing there and chatting with some "Realms"-fans. He seemed happy and was smiling all the time when the little group set into motion on the way to the fantasy-café.

They were halfway through the warehouse when three mutant turtles came running in.

The group didn't even stop, but the turtles did, looking at the scene before them with confused looks on their faces and their weapons in their hands.

"Cool outfits!" one fan said to them. "But you're too late for the best fan event EVER!"

"Oh, okay," Leo said, his forehead still wrinkled in confusion.

"I don't remember any giant turtles in the books," another fan pointed out.

"Well, that's…because…they didn't make it into the final version," Leo stuttered.

"Ah, okay. Wanna join us for the fantasy-café, too?"

"No, thanks," Leo said quickly. "We'd only be disappointed because we missed the best fan event ever."

"Understood."

And with that the group was gone.

Donnie rushed over to April who had started looking for her T-phone and tessen which must be lying around on the floor here somewhere.

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly.

"Sure," April replied with a smile before she picked up her tessen.

Donnie let out a relieved sigh.

Leo and Mikey joined them when April had finally found her T-phone.

"Was that Sir Malachi?" Leo asked.

"Yep," April said.

"Wow, I think you have quite a story to tell, right, April?" Mikey chimed in.

April grinned from ear to ear. "You bet."

* * *

><p>"And when the dragon had spit fire right at me and I was still standing there unharmed, the illusion faded", April said.<p>

They were all gathered in the Shellraiser and while Leo was driving the vehicle back to the lair, April told them the story of tonight's events.

"Well, and then the other fans went all geeky about the awesome event and nearly dragged Sir Malachi away with them to the fantasy-café."

"I'm glad he found some new friends," Mikey said, dangling his legs.

"Yeah, but we still have to talk to him about kidnapping random people and putting them into a crazy fantasy-world," Leo said. "Again."

Raph looked from Casey to his brothers and to April.

He was so happy that she was okay. He had played so many worst case-scenarios in his head, Casey had had a hard job to keep him in the Shellraiser. He would have gone out there and fought whatever could have harmed April with his crutches if he had to.

But she was fine and he could spend the last two weeks before the splint was removed from his broken ankle reading the new "Realms"-book. Or could he?

Panic started to rise in his chest as he realized he had no idea if April had gotten the book for him or not.

Leo stopped the Shellraiser in front of the lair's entrance, and they all got up. Raph let the others get out before him and then jumped out of the wagon on his good leg.

April had fallen back a little and he quickly closed up to her with a few jumps.

"Sooooo," he drawled as he started walking on his crutches, "you're fine. That's a good thing, you know."

April giggled. "Yes, and it gets even better."

She opened her messenger bag and reached for something.

Raph stopped abruptly and nearly tumbled over when she was holding the latest "Realms"-book out to him.

He looked at her and the surprised look on his face turned into a grin.

"April," he said, "you're the best."

"Yeah," April replied matter-of-factly. "So I've been told."

But then her face turned into a smile and she winked at him. And with that they continued their walk.

* * *

><p>Two weeks had passed, two weeks of peace and quiet and "Realms" and Raph had been rather easy to handle – which probably had something to do with the "Realms"-part of the two weeks.<p>

But now he was sitting in Donnie's lab and shifting impatiently while Donnie was trying to remove the splint.

"Stop wiggling, Raph!" Donnie said in an annoyed voice. "I'm almost done!"

"Be done completely, then!" Raph replied.

"I am!" Donnie called out and let out a sigh of relief as the splint fell to the floor.

Donnie was surprised to find his brother look at his foot with a confused look on his face, but he decided to use this time of Raph holding still to bandage the foot.

"You'll still need some extra support at the beginning," he explained when he wrapped the bandage around the ankle. "And don't overdo it! I'll set up a special training plan for you. I'll talk to Master Splinter about it and … Raph, are you listening to me?"

Raph was still staring at his foot, but now that Donnie was done with the bandaging, he got to his feet.

"Yeah!" he called out. "No splint any longer! Yes!"

He pumped his fist in the air.

"No more crutches!" he added when he started limping over to the lab's door.

"You might still need them because you need to rebuild the muscular strength in your foot. I am not sure if it can hold your weight right now with the bandaging alone."

Donnie frowned when he saw how heavily his brother was limping over to the door, putting nearly no weight on his bad foot. It looked like he was right.

But Raph didn't seem to care. Actually, he was acting like he was some sort of Frank Sinatra as he was carrying out a victory dance which looked rather funny with all this limping and keeping his weight on one foot.

"Haha!" Raph called out happily. "Do you see this? No crutches! No crutches!"

"Well, about that," Donnie continued, "as I said you might need…"

Raph had reached the door of the lab by now and limp-danced out of the lab, cheering and rejoicing, and the next thing Donnie heard was a terrible rumbling, and he rushed over to the door.

He found Raph lying face down on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

"Raph!" he called out. "Are you okay?"

Raph let out a muffled groan, his face still pressed against the floor, and what he said next made Donnie's eyes widen in shock.

"I think I broke my arm."


End file.
